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LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  NATHAN  SMITH 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

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Nathan  Smith,  M.  D. 

Professor  on  Yale  Medical  Faculty,  1813-1829 -From  a  portrait  by  S.  F.  B.  Morse 
Presented  to  the  Medical  School  by  the  Class  of  1826 


THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS 

OF 

NATHAN  SMITH,   M.B.,  M.D. 

By 

EMILY   A.    SMITH 

With  an  Introduction  by 
WILLIAM  H.  WELCH,  M.D.,  LL.D. 


New  Haven  :  Yale  University  Press 

London  :    Humphrey    Milford 

Oxford  University  Press 

MDCCCCXIV 


Copyright,  1914 

BY 

Yale  University  Press 


First  printed  May,  1914,  1000  copies 


5 


With  deep  gratitude  and  heart  interest  I  dedicate 
this  book  to  the  members  of  the  medical  profession, 
who,  following  the  leadership  of  those  who  have  gone 
before,  but  with  new  light  and  better  facilities,  are 
laboring  to  relieve  the  pain  and  suffering  of  their 
fellow  beings. 


INTRODUCTION 
By  William  H.  Welch,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

The  medical  profession  and  all  interested  in  the  his- 
tory of  medicine  in  this  country  owe  a  large  debt  to 
Mrs.  Alan  P.  Smith  for  the  preparation  of  "The  Life 
and  Letters  of  Nathan  Smith,"  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  figures  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can medicine.  It  is  eminently  fitting  that  this  work 
should  issue  from  the  Yale  University  Press  as  a  con- 
tribution to  the  celebration  of  the  centennial  anniver- 
sary of  the  opening  of  "The  Medical  Institution  of 
Yale  College,"  of  which  Dr.  Smith  was  an  organizer 
and  chief  ornament. 

The  main  sources  hitherto  available  for  what  is 
known  of  the  life  of  Nathan  Smith  have  been  the 
addresses  of  Dr.  Jonathan  Knight  and  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
William  Allen,  delivered  and  published  shortly  after 
his  death  in  1829,  the  "Medical  and  Surgical  Mem- 
oirs" by  his  son,  Dr.  Nathan  R.  Smith,  published  in 
1 83 1,  and  especially  the  "Historical  Discourse"  by  Dr. 
Oliver  P.  Hubbard,  printed  in  1880,  to  all  of  which 
repeated  reference  is  made  in  this  book.  The  many 
scattered  estimates  and  accounts,  mostly  of  an  inci- 
dental nature,  of  the  life  and  work  of  this  remarkable 
man  in  medical  writings  have  been  drawn  in  the  main 
from  the  foregoing  sources. 


Introduction 


To  this  rather  meagre  fund  of  information  a  sub- 
stantial addition  has  been  made  by  the  painstaking  and 
devoted  investigations  and  labors  of  Mrs.  Smith. 
Especially  interesting  are  Dr.  Smith's  hitherto  unpub- 
lished letters,  particularly  those,  covering  a  period  of 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  to  his  friend  and  pupil, 
Dr.  George  Cheyne  Shattuck,  an  eminent  physician  of 
Boston  and  a  benefactor  of  Dartmouth  College  and 
other  educational  institutions,  and  the  extracts  from 
Dr.  Smith's  ledgers  and  lecture  notes. 

Mrs.  Smith  has  drawn  a  much  clearer  and  fuller 
picture  than  had  been  done  before  of  the  setting  of 
Nathan  Smith's  life,  of  his  struggles  and  trials,  of  his 
indomitable  courage  and  resourcefulness,  of  his  mar- 
velous capacity  for  work,  of  his  professional  and  edu- 
cational ideals  and  activities,  and  of  his  triumphs.  We 
catch  intimate  glimpses  of  the  active-minded  lad  upon 
the  frontier,  of  the  student  at  home  and  abroad  getting, 
in  spite  of  great  difficulties,  a  good  medical  training,  of 
the  lover  "transported  with  joy  and  expectation,"  of 
the  devoted  husband  and  father,  solicitous  for  the  edu- 
cation of  his  sons,  of  the  busy  physician  and  surgeon, 
"bandied  about  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  the 
other,"  treating  fevers,  couching  for  cataract,  cutting 
for  stone,  excising  tumors,  and  embarrassed  most  of  the 
time,  as  is  the  way  of  doctors,  from  failure  or  inability 
to  collect  his  fees,  small  as  they  were,  of  the  founder  of 
medical  schools  and  the  professor,  filling  and  filling  well 
all  the  chairs  in  the  medical  curriculum, — from  all 
accounts  a  really  great  teacher,  and  withal  deserving 
President  Woolsey's  characterization  of  him  as  "the 


Introduction 


most  delightful,  unselfish  and  kind-hearted  man  I  ever 
knew,  and  we  children  all  loved  hin." 

Dr.  Smith's  letters  to  Shattuck  remind  one  not  a 
little  of  John  Hunter's  correspondence  with  his  former 
pupil,  Jenner.  How  suggestive  of  Hunter's  many  com- 
missions imposed  upon  Jenner  is  the  letter  (on  page  47 
of  this  book)  beginning,  "I  am  continually  troubling 
you  about  many  things!"  .  .  .  "If  you  have  a  man  in 
Boston  who  makes  thermometers,  and  if  he  can  do  it,  I 
wish  also  to  have  an  air  thermometer  constructed 
according  to  Henry's  directions  in  his  chapter  on 
Caloric.  I  presume  you  can  find  that  book  in  Boston, 
and  the  workman  may  follow  that  in  his  work."  The 
repeated  requests  to  send  chemicals,  apparatus,  instru- 
ments and  books  afford  some  insight  into  Dr.  Smith's 
scientific  interests  and  activities,  as  does  also  the  novel 
task  assigned  to  two  of  his  pupils  to  read  through 
fifty-two  volumes  of  historical  works,  recently  added  to 
his  library,  in  order  to  cull  out  and  index  "everything 
relating  to  medicine  or  medical  men." 

The  difference  between  the  mental  attitudes  toward 
medical  science  of  Nathan  Smith  and  of  his  older  con- 
temporary, Benjamin  Rush,  is  made  clear  in  the  letter 
to  Dr.  Shattuck  when  a  student  in  Philadelphia.  Rush, 
the  greatest  historical  figure  in  American  medicine, 
belonged  essentially  to  the  group  of  systematists  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Dr.  Smith  writes:  "Dr.  Rush  must 
be  a  very  interesting  lecturer.  As  to  his  classification  of 
diseases  I  do  not  think  it  very  material.  However  we 
may  class  diseases,  we  must  study  them  in  detail.  .  .  . 
As  to  the  unity  of  disease,  you  know  it  is  my  opinion 


Introduction 


that  we  have  in  medical  science  of  late  generalized  too 
much  and  that  the  progress  of  medicine  has  been 
checked  by  it.  This  mode  of  proceeding  tends  to 
substitute  idleness  for  industry,  and  dogmatism  for 
patient  inquiry." 

None  of  Nathan  Smith's  contemporaries  in  this 
country  was  possessed  in  larger  measure  of  the  true 
spirit  and  method  of  scientific  inquiry.  A  very  remark- 
able vision  of  the  benefits  that  must  accrue  to  medicine 
by  the  applications  of  chemistry  and  of  the  experimental 
method  to  the  problems  of  disease  is  presented  in  the 
extract  from  one  of  his  lectures  on  chemistry  printed 
on  page  79  of  this  book. 

Nathan  Smith  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  best  of  the 
new  generation  of  medical  men  who  came  to  the  front 
in  the  quarter  of  a  century  immediately  following  the 
War  of  the  Revolution  and  gave  to  American  medicine 
a  self-reliance,  an  adaptation  to  the  needs  of  a  rapidly 
expanding  country,  an  activity  and  a  productivity  pre- 
viously unknown.  Only  two  medical  schools,  one  in 
Philadelphia  and  one  in  New  York,  had  been  estab- 
lished in  the  decade  preceding  the  Revolution ;  now  new 
medical  schools,  societies  and  journals  were  founded 
and  the  practice  of  medicine  and  of  surgery  was  brought 
fully  abreast  of  the  times.  While  the  most  familiar 
names  of  this  heroic  period  are  of  physicians  and  sur- 
geons of  the  cities  on  or  near  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  as 
John  Warren,  Samuel  Bard,  Wright  Post,  David 
Hosack,  Benjamin  Rush,  Philip  Syng  Physick,  David 
Ramsay,  yet  in  many  ways  the  most  original,  interesting 
and  distinctively  American  are  those  of  the  frontier,  as 


Introduction 


Ephraim  McDowell,  Benjamin  W.  Dudley  and  Daniel 
Drake.  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  had  closer  kinship  with  this 
latter  group  than  with  the  former.  In  his  early  years 
the  parts  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  where  he 
lived  were  scarcely  less  frontier  settlements  than  were 
Kentucky  and  Ohio.  Smith,  like  McDowell  and  Dud- 
ley, received  an  excellent  medical  training,  enjoying  the 
advantages  of  European  study,  but  not  the  least  valu- 
able part  of  the  training  of  these  men  was  acquired 
during  their  youth  in  the  woods  and  the  fields  under  the 
primitive  conditions  of  pioneer  life,  imparting  that 
vigor,  virility,  keenness  of  observation,  resourcefulness 
and  fund  of  good  sense  which  characterized  them. 

In  his  day  Nathan  Smith  shared  with  John  Warren 
a  position  of  unexampled  preeminence  in  the  medical 
profession  of  New  England,  his  activities  extending 
over  a  wider  territory  and  including  all  of  that  region 
except  eastern  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  He  is 
a  remarkable  example  of  equal  eminence  in  internal 
medicine  and  in  surgery.  Only  a  later  generation  could 
appreciate  fully  how  original  and  great  was  the  con- 
tribution to  medicine  which  he  made  in  his  essay  on 
"Typhus  Fever,"  now  a  medical  classic.  Probably  the 
first  adequate  appreciation  by  a  competent  authority  of 
Dr.  Smith's  "Observations  on  the  Pathology  and  Treat- 
ment of  Necrosis"  is  that  of  the  distinguished  surgeon, 
Frederick  Lange,  in  his  paper  on  osteomyelitis  in  the 
"Festschrift"  in  honor  of  von  Esmarch,  published  in 
1893.  Both  of  these  famous  essays  are  models  of  keen 
observation,  accurate  description,  correct  inference,  ex- 


Introduction 


pressed  in  clear  and  simple  language  and  presenting 
admirable  pictures  of  the  conditions  described. 

Mrs.  Smith  has  set  forth  fully  the  interesting  circum- 
stances of  Nathan  Smith's  unprecedented  activities  con- 
nected with  the  establishment  of  four  medical  schools, 
those  of  Dartmouth,  Yale,  Bowdoin  and  the  University 
of  Vermont.  The  only  one  of  these  schools  which  he 
actually  initiated  was  that  of  Dartmouth,  where  for 
twelve  years  he  taught,  with  only  occasional  and  slight 
assistance,  all  of  the  subjects  then  included  in  the  medi- 
cal curriculum,  and  we  know  that  he  taught  them  well. 
Few  teachers  have  ever  been  held  in  greater  esteem  and 
affection  by  pupils  than  was  Dr.  Smith.  One  cannot 
restrain  a  feeling  of  regret,  although  sympathizing  with 
the  enlightened  decision  necessitated  by  the  changed 
conditions  of  medical  education,  that  the  Dartmouth 
Medical  School,  with  its  long  and  honorable  history,  is 
to  discontinue  the  last  two  years  of  the  course  after  the 
present  session. 

That  Dr.  Smith  did  not  believe  in  the  unnecessary 
multiplication  of  medical  schools  is  apparent  from  a 
statement  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Shattuck  of  April  18, 
1823  (on  page  122)  :  "I  think  the  four  schools  which 
I  have  been  concerned  in  bringing  forward,  in  addition 
to  Harvard,  will  be  as  much  as  New  England  will  bear, 
and  I  think  there  will  not  be  too  many.  Every  state 
should  have  one  medical  school  and  no  more."  It 
would  have  been  well  for  medical  education  in  this 
country  if  this  standard  had  been  maintained,  and  well 
too  if  his  example  had  been  followed  of  establishing 


Introduction 


such  schools  only  in  association  with  colleges  or 
universities. 

Coming  to  New  Haven  in  1813  in  the  fullness  of  his 
powers,  Nathan  Smith  was  by  far  the  most  distin- 
guished member  of  the  first  faculty  of  the  Yale  Medical 
School  and  the  one  most  active  in  its  organization  and 
development.  Here,  too,  was  the  scene  of  his  most 
productive  activities,  of  his  widest  influence  and  great- 
est usefulness.  If  provided  with  adequate  resources,  the 
Yale  Medical  School,  favorably  located  in  connection 
with  a  great  university,  is  in  a  position  to  enter  upon  the 
second  century  of  its  existence  with  a  well-founded 
expectation  of  renown  and  usefulness  surpassing  even 
the  high  hopes  of  Nathan  Smith,  under  whom  it  had 
attained  a  large  measure  of  prosperity. 

It  is  related  that  the  first  President  Dwight  was 
accustomed  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  the  events  of 
Nathan  Smith's  life  to  the  senior  class  of  Yale  College 
"in  order  to  awaken  their  ambition  and  to  encourage 
them  in  surmounting  difficulties."  It  was  indeed  a  life 
full  of  useful  lessons,  and  many  will  be  grateful  to  Mrs. 
Smith  for  this  memorial  volume,  which  will  help  to 
extend  and  perpetuate  the  fame  of  a  great  physician, 
teacher  and  builder,  whose  name  stands  high  in  the 
medical  annals  of  this  country.  Several  of  the  descend- 
ants of  Nathan  Smith  became  distinguished  in  medi- 
cine and  an  interest  attaches  to  the  short  biographical 
notices  of  other  members  of  this  remarkable  family  of 
physicians. 


FOREWORD 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  fulfil  what  I  consider 
a  sacred  trust,  by  contributing  to  the  Medical  School 
of  Yale  University  a  brief  sketch  of  the  remarkable 
life  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  with  many  of  his  heretofore 
unpublished  letters  and  extracts  from  his  ledgers  kept 
at  Dartmouth  and  Yale. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  in  this  compilation  to 
dilate  upon  the  history  or  to  do  more  than  connect 
the  letters  with  the  various  incidents  of  the  life  of  Dr. 
Smith  by  arranging  them  in  chronological  order. 

Since  I  have  been  the  guardian  of  his  valuable 
papers,  a  steady  growth  of  interest  has  been  mani- 
fested in  them  and  in  their  author,  who  is  now  recog- 
nized by  the  medical  profession  to  have  been  in 
medicine  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  his  day  in  Amer- 
ica, a  pioneer,  who  made  important  innovations  in  the 
treatment  of  diseases,  raising  the  standard  of  medical 
science  from  a  very  low  estate — and  who  in  the  face 
of  almost  insurmountable  difficulties  founded  medical 
schools  where  he  taught  hundreds  and  perhaps  thou- 
sands of  men,  of  whom  many  have  become  shining 
lights  in  the  medical  profession. 

This  biography  will  show  that  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 
was  practically  the  founder  of  the  Yale  Medical  School 
in  the  year  1813,  for  he  not  only  supplied  the  first 
lectureships  in  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic,  of 
Surgery  and  of  Obstetrics,  but,  by  his  own  personal 


viil  Foreword 

application  to  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut,  obtained 
a  grant  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  to  start  the  medical 
buildings. 

It  will  also  be  shown  that  it  was  during  Dr.  Smith's 
sojourn  at  New  Haven  that  he  accomplished  his  best 
work  in  teaching,  writing,  and  attending  the  sick. 

In  consideration  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith's  important 
connection  with  the  Medical  School  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity, there  would  appear  to  be  no  better  way  of  cele- 
brating the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  its  opening  than 
in  honoring  its  distinguished  founder  by  putting  into 
some  permanent  form  an  account  of  his  remarkable 
life  and  a  collection  of  his  writings  as  a  fitting  memorial 
to  his  beloved  memory. 

In  the  summer  of  19 10  it  was  my  privilege  to  visit 
the  early  home  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  at  Cornish,  N.  H., 
and  some  of  the  colleges  connected  with  his  work. 

At  Dartmouth,  Prof.  John  K.  Lord  loaned  me  some 
interesting  letters  written  by  Dr.  Smith,  and  Dr.  Gil- 
man  D.  Frost  showed  great  kindness  in  taking  me 
through  the  old  medical  building  for  which  Dr.  Smith 
gave  the  land,  and  in  which  in  1798  he  started  the 
first  medical  school  in  New  Hampshire  by  filling  all 
the  chairs  himself. 

At  Yale,  Dr.  Wm.  H.  Carmalt  took  pains  to  help 
on  my  work  and  by  his  continued  kindness  has  done 
much  to  further  its  completion. 

I  feel  that  I  owe  thanks  to  many  who  have  aided  me 
in  one  way  or  another.  Mrs.  Nathan  Smith  Lincoln 
and  other  ladies  of  the  family  have  contributed  letters 
and   photographs,    and   Drs.    Frederick   C.    Shattuck, 


Foreword  ix 

William  H.  Welch,  Samuel  C.  Chew,  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Maryland,  James  A.  Spalding,  Alfred  Mitchell, 
of  Bowdoin  College,  and  Samuel  Theobald,  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  have  all  aided  by  supplying  letters 
or  giving  permission  to  quote  from  their  writings.  To 
no  two  friends  do  I  feel  more  gratitude  than  to  the 
late  Dr.  John  Taylor  Gilman  Nichols,  who  encouraged 
me  to  compile  the  biography,  and  to  Dr.  Henry  M. 
Hurd,  without  whose  substantial  interest  the  work 
might  have  received  no  further  recognition. 

I  have  also  been  aided  by  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith 
and  Dr.  Eugene  McEvers  Van  Ness,  who  gave  much 
time  and  the  benefit  of  their  medical  knowledge  to 
examining  the  manuscripts  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  and 
to  deciphering  his  very  difficult  handwriting.  For 
some  of  the  early  accounts  of  Cornish  I  am  indebted 
to  Mrs.  Laura  Chase  Smith  and  her  very  interesting 
history  of  her  grandfather,  Bishop  Philander  Chase. 
Mr.  Carroll  Smith,  of  Albany,  kindly  contributed  items 
from  the  genealogy  of  the  family. 

I  am  deeply  grateful  to  Mrs.  Robert  Nelson  Corwin 
for  her  very  careful  editorial  work  and  also  for  the 
addition  of  many  of  the  footnotes  and  a  few  historical 
items  of  much  interest. 

Emily  A.  Smith. 

August  18,  1913. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.     The  Landing  of  the  "Diligent"  in  1638     .      .  1 

II.  Exciting  adventures  of  Nathan  Smith's  early 
days.  War  with  Indians.  He  becomes  a 
teacher.  Assists  at  a  surgical  operation  and 
decides  to  study  medicine 4 

III.  His  removal  to  Cornish,  New  Hampshire,  to 

practice  medicine.  The  Chases  and  Spaldings 
his  friends  there.  Goes  to  Harvard  and  takes 
degree  of  M.B.  in  1790.  Marriage  with 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  General  Chase.  Death 
of  wife  and  marriage,  the  following  year, 
with  her  half-sister,  Sarah 7 

IV.  Nathan    Smith    offers   to    establish    a   medical 

department  at  Hanover.  Sails  on  Bark 
"Hope"  for  Edinburgh  to  continue  studies. 
Returns  after  nine  months  with  books  and 
instruments  for  his  work.  Honored  by  Lon- 
don Medical  Society 15 

V.  Dr.  Smith  founds  Dartmouth  Medical  School 
in  1797.  Sole  teacher  in  all  branches.  De- 
gree of  A.M.  conferred  upon  him  by  Dart- 
mouth in  1798.  Rapid  growth  of  the  school 
under  difficulties.  Dr.  Smith  practices  vac- 
cination in  1800.  Extracts  from  his  ledger 
of  1800.  Lists  of  pupils,  including  Daniel 
Webster.  M.D.  from  Dartmouth,  1801  .  22 
VI.  Friendships  with  pupils.  Letters  to  Dr.  George 
C.  Shattuck;  one  of  the  earliest,  with  com- 
ments on  the  teaching  of  his  contemporary, 
Dr.   Benjamin  Rush,   of   Philadelphia.     Dr. 


xii  Table  of  Contents 

Chapter  Page 

Smith  gets  grant  from  Legislature  of  New- 
Hampshire  to  build  a  home  for  the  Medical 
School ;  he  gives  land  and  assigns  his  anatomi- 
cal museum  and  chemical  apparatus  to  the 
State 34 

VII.  Difficulties  and  trials  followed  by  honors. 
Dr.  Smith  elected  president  of  the  State 
Medical  Society.  Renewed  honor  by  Lon- 
don Medical  Society.  M.D.  from  Harvard, 
1811.  More  letters  to  Dr.  Shattuck.  Fa- 
mous prophecy  in  his  lecture  on  Chemistry  .        53 

VIII.  In  letter  to  Dr.  Shattuck  of  April  15,  1811, 
some  account  of  his  family  is  given,  and  a 
full  description  of  the  origin  of  the  Dart- 
mouth Medical  School.  Other  important 
letters 61 

IX.  Description  of  the  old  medical  building.  Great 
discouragements  come  to  Dr.  Smith  at  Dart- 
mouth. In  1812  he  is  invited  to  assist  the 
trustees  of  Yale  College  in  establishing  a 
medical  department  there,  by  becoming  Pro- 
fessor of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic, 
Surgery  and  Obstetrics.    Accepts  proposition       75 

X.  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  leaves  Dartmouth  for  New 
Haven,  taking  with  him  his  sons,  David 
Solon  and  Nathan  Ryno,  to  enter  at  Yale  as 
pupils.  Teaching  and  practice  in  New  Haven       90 

XL  Dr.  Smith's  manner  of  lecturing.  Makes  per- 
sonal application  to  the  Legislature  of  Con- 
necticut for  a  grant  of  funds  and  receives 
twenty    thousand    dollars    for    the    medical 


Table  of  Contents  xiii 

Chapter  Page 

buildings  at  Yale.  Dr.  Smith's  affliction  in 
loss  of  his  eldest  daughter.     Moves  family  to 

New  Haven 93 

XII.  David  Solon  receives  degree  of  M.D.  in  1816. 
Nathan  Ryno,  the  second  son,  writes  a  play 
and  performs  in  it.  Receives  degree  of  A.B. 
in  1817  and  leaves  to  be  tutor  in  a  Virginia 
family.  Solon  goes  west  to  study  botany. 
More  letters  to  Dr.  Shattuck.  Extracts  from 
records  in  family  Bible.  Marriages  of  elder 
children 103 

XIII.  In   1820  the  Legislature  of  Maine  endows  a 

medical  school.  Dr.  Smith  is  consulted  and 
placed  at  the  head  of  it  and  thus  assists  in 
establishing  the  medical  school  in  connection 
with  Bowdoin  College  at  Brunswick,  Maine     109 

XIV.  Dr.  Smith  lectures  at  both  Bowdoin  and  Yale. 

Extracts  from  his  ledger  kept  at  New  Haven 
in  1821  and  1822,  with  list  of  students  there. 
Dr.  Solon  Smith  marries  and  settles  at  Sut- 
ton. Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith  returns  to 
Yale  and  receives  degree  of  M.D.  there  in 
1820.  Begins  practice  at  Burlington  and 
marries  there.  He  is  called  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  Vermont,  where  with  his  father  he 
establishes  a  medical  department  in  1821  and 
becomes  Professor  of  Surgery  and  Anatomy  114 
XV.  Letters  to  Dr.  Shattuck  from  Dr.  Nathan 
Smith  from  Brunswick  and  New  Haven; 
the  one  of  April  18,  1823,  mentions  comple- 
tion of  his  well-known  treatise  on  typhoid 
fever.    The  work  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  com- 


XIV 


Table  of  Contents 


Chapter  Page 

merited  upon  by  Professor  Knight  of  New 

Haven 121 

XVI.  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith  goes  to  Philadelphia, 
where,  as  Professor  of  Anatomy,  he  joins  Dr. 
George  McClellan  in  founding  the  Jefferson 
Medical  School,  advised  and  assisted  by  Dr. 
Nathan  Smith  and  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck. 
Letters  from  the  elder  Dr.  Smith  to  Dr.  Shat- 
tuck.   Financial  cares 130 

XVII.  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith  is  called  to  chair  of 
Surgery  in  the  University  of  Maryland,  and 
leaves  Philadelphia  for  Baltimore.  Last  let- 
ter of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  to  Dr.  Shattuck, 
dated  New  Haven,  December  8,  1827,  speaks 
with  pride  and  affection  of  his  family.  Letter 
from  Dr.  N.  R.  Smith  upon  hearing  of  the 
extreme  illness  of  his  father 135 

XVIII.  The  death  of  Nathan  Smith,  surrounded  by  his 
family  and  his  beloved  pupils.  Dr.  Shattuck 
soothes  his  last  hours  by  promised  care  of  the 
education    of    his    youngest    son.      Professor 

Knight's  eulogium 140 

XIX.  Resolutions  passed  containing  eulogies  and  testi- 
monials of  honor  to  the  memory  of  Nathan 
Smith  during  the  course  of  the  century  almost 

elapsed  since  his  death 147 

XX.     Medical  men  descended  from  Nathan  Smith  .      156 

The  Appendix: 

Containing  an  account  of  the  writings  of  Dr. 
Nathan  Smith.  His  Introductory  Lecture 
delivered  at  Yale  in  1813 167 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Nathan  Smith,  M.D Frontispiece 

PAGE 

One  of  the  Jonathan  Chase  Houses  at  Cornish     ...  6 

The  Episcopal  Church  at  Cornish 10 

The  Graveyard  Next  to  the  Episcopal  Church       ...  10 

General  Jonathan  Chase 12 

Mrs.  Jonathan  Chase 14 

One  of  the  Homes  of  General  Jonathan  Chase  at  Cornish  20 

The  Connecticut  River  near  Hanover,  N.  H 22 

The  Book  Plate  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 26 

Photograph  of  a  Page  from  Dr.  Smith's  Ledger  Kept  at 

Dartmouth,    1800-1801 28 

The  Old  Medical  Building  at  Dartmouth     ....  76 

The  Nathan  Smith  Laboratory  at  Dartmouth  ...  80 
Photograph  from  the  Ledger  of  Dr.  Smith  Kept  at  Yale, 

1813-1814 92 

Yale  College  in  1807 96 

Photograph  of   Invitation   for  Junior   Exhibition,   Yale 

College,  1816 102 

Yale  Medical  College  in  1840 108 

Photograph  of  Original  Ticket  to  Dr.  Smith's  Lectures 

at  Yale  College,  1821 116 

Mrs.  Frances  (Montesque  Buchanan  Allen)  Penniman  .  118 

Mrs.  Margaret  (Schoolcraft)  Montesque  Wall  ...  120 

Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith  (from  Miniature)   .      .      .      .  136 

The  Grave  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 142 

Dr.  David  Solon  Chase  Hall  Smith 156 

Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith 158 

Dr.  James  Morven  Smith 160 

Dr.  John  Derby  Smith 162 


NATHAN  SMITH 

Harvard—     M.B.  1790.    M.D.  1811. 
Dartmouth— A.M.  1798.'    M.D.  1801. 

Corresponding  member  of  the  Medical  Society  of 

London,  1797. 

Founder  of  the  Medical   School  of  Dartmouth, 

1798. 
Dartmouth — Professor  of  Anatomy,   Surgery,  Chemistry,  and 

Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine,  1798  to  1810. 
Dartmouth — Professor  of  Chemistry,  and  Theory  and  Practice 

of  Medicine,  1810  to  1813. 
Yale —  First  Professor  of  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic, 

Surgery  and  Obstetrics,  1813  to  1829. 
Bowdoin —    With    President    Allen    the    inaugurator   of   the 

Medical  School  in  connection  with  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege, Maine,  1821  to  1826. 
Bowdoin —     Professor  of  Anatomy,  Surgery,  and  Theory  and 

Practice  of  Medicine,   1821   to  1823.     Professor 

of   Theory  and   Practice  of   Medicine,    1821    to 

1826. 
Burlington — Together  with  his  son,  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith, 

founder  of  the  Medical  School  of  the  University 

of  Vermont  at  Burlington,  1820. 


Born  September  30,  1762 — Died  January  26,  1829. 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  NATHAN  SMITH 


CHAPTER  FIRST 

The  Landing  of  the  "Diligent"  in  1638 

Within  a  few  months  of  the  ordering  of  a  school 
or  college  at  Newetowne,  and  in  the  memorable  year 
when  the  name  of  Newetowne  was  changed,  hencefor- 
ward to  be  called  Cambridge,  no  less  than  twenty  ships 
plowed  their  way  across  the  unusually  stormy  waters 
of  the  Atlantic,  bringing  to  the  shores  of  America  at 
least  three  thousand  persons,  many  of  whom  were  men 
and  women  of  quality  and  estate  who  were  seeking 
freedom  from  religious  persecution  and  who  were  to 
be  the  founders  of  the  great  Republic  of  the  United 
States, — among  them  men  wisely  called  "the  greatest 
geniuses  for  government  that  the  world  ever  saw 
embarked  together  in  one  common  cause." 

One  of  these  twenty  ships  was  the  good  "Diligent" 
of  Ipswich,  which,  on  August  10,  1638,  safely  landed 
her  cargo  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  souls, 
brought  from  Old  Hingham,  England,  to  the  New 
Hingham  in  New  England.  Some  of  these  men  were 
destined  to  become  important  factors  in  laying  the 
firm  foundation  for  prosperity  and  peace  upon  which 
future  men  were  to  build.  There  were  the  Gilmans, 
Lincolns,  Cushings,  Coopers,  Folsoms  and  others. 

Many  of  these  families  had  been  the  parishioners 
of  the  Rev.  Robert  Peck,  under  whose  leadership  they 
had  come  to  the  land  where  religious  toleration  existed 


Life  and  Letters 


for  all.  Among  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  pas- 
sengers of  the  "Diligent"  was  a  Mr.  Henry  Smith, 
who,  with  his  wife,  Judith,  their  three  sons  and  two 
daughters,  three  men  servants  and  two  maid  servants, 
was  from  Hargham  Hall,  Norfolk  County,  England. 
English  histories  refer  to  this  Henry  Smith  as  one  of 
the  prominent  men  who  emigrated  to  New  England 
on  account  of  religious  controversies  then  existing. 

Mr.  Henry  Smith's  five  children  were  all  born  and 
educated  in  England,  and,  as  the  term  "Mr."  indicates, 
he  himself  had  been  a  college  graduate,  and  in  the  new 
country  became  a  useful  citizen  and  was,  in  1641,  a 
representative  in  General  Court. 

His  son,  Henry,  Jr.,  called  Ensign  Henry,  a  man  of 
superior  culture  and  an  engineer,  surveyed  the  Reho- 
both  North  Purchase,  Attleboro,  Mass.,  and  Cumber- 
land, R.  L,  with  Mr.  Carpenter;  also  the  Douams 
Purchase,  Barrington,  R.  I.,  and  many  other  places; 
he,  likewise,  was  a  representative  in  General  Court  in 
1662. 

Ensign  Henry  Smith's  son,  called  Deacon  Henry, 
married  Rebecca  Atwood  and  they  were  the  parents 
of  John  Smith,  whose  second  wife,  Elizabeth  (Ide) 
Hills,  was  the  mother  of  Nathan  Smith  of  this  history. 

The  family  of  the  first  Henry  Smith  removed,  not 
very  long  after  their  landing,  from  Hingham  to  Reho- 
both,  where  it  took  root  and  flourished  for  four 
generations. 

Here,  on  September  30,  1762,  a  son,  Nathan,  was 
born  to  John  Smith  and  Elizabeth,  his  wife.  They 
subsequently  removed  to  Chester,  Vt.,  but  the  exact 


of  Nathan  Smith 


time  or  cause  for  this  step  is  not  known.  Accounts  of 
the  boyhood  days  of  Nathan  Smith  indicate  that  his 
father  was  a  pioneer  among  the  farmers  of  that 
district. 


CHAPTER  SECOND 

The  youthful  days  of  Nathan  Smith  were  spent 
upon  his  father's  farm,  aiding  in  the  usual  duties  in 
garden  and  fields  and  in  the  care  of  the  domestic  ani- 
mals; but  there  were  times  when  he  had  experiences 
exciting  enough  to  suit  the  most  ambitious  taste  for 
adventure.  His  hunting  and  fishing  excursions  were  in 
the  wilds  of  the  frontier  lands,  where  it  is  said  that 
on  one  occasion  he  was  lost  for  three  days  in  one  of  the 
dense  forests  where  lofty  pines  sometimes  reached  to 
the  height  of  270  feet,  and  the  thick  undergrowth  in 
places  often  concealed  wild  beasts  as  well  as  hostile  and 
treacherous  Indians.  It  may  well  be  imagined  that 
under  such  circumstances  as  then  surrounded  the  young 
Nathan,  he  must  have  acquired  very  early  in  life  great 
courage  and  self-reliance,  especially  as,  beneath  the 
natural  love  which  boys  usually  have  for  sports,  he 
possessed  from  the  first  uncommon  force  of  character 
and  a  great  ambition  to  acquire  knowledge  and  use  it 
for  the  benefit  of  others.  It  is  recorded  of  him  that 
at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  when  still  a 
youth,  he  served  with  the  Vermont  militia  to  protect 
the  inhabitants  against  the  incursions  of  the  Indians, 
and  at  one  time  "narrowly  escaped  a  bullet  aimed  at 
him  by  a  son  of  the  forest  from  his  place  of  ambush." 
Evidently  his  military  conduct  gained  approval,  for  at 
the  age  of  eighteen  years  he  was  promoted  from  the 
ranks  to  a  captaincy  in  his  regiment. 


Nathan  Smith 


A  little  later  we  hear  of  him  as  a  teacher  in  a  dis- 
trict school,  showing  that,  although  a  farmer's  boy, 
his  early  education  had  not  been  neglected  by  his 
father,  who  was  descended  from  cultured  people. 

While  engaged  in  this  work  of  teaching,  his  interest 
was  aroused  on  hearing  that  Dr.  Goodhue,  a  noted 
surgeon  of  the  time,  was  coming  from  Putney,  Vt.,  to 
amputate  the  leg  of  a  man  in  Chester.  Together  with 
others,  young  Smith  repaired  to  the  spot  to  watch  the 
operation  and  when  Dr.  Goodhue  asked  if  any  one 
present  would  assist  him  by  holding  the  leg,  Nathan 
Smith  stepped  boldly  forward  and  with  unflinching 
nerve  gave  his  aid,  even  so  far  as  to  tie  the  arteries 
without  a  tremor.  After  the  operation  was  completed 
and  many  had  left  the  house,  young  Smith  expressed 
to  Dr.  Goodhue  his  intense  desire  to  study  medicine, 
proposing  to  begin  as  soon  as  the  school  term  should 
close.  But  after  questioning  him  as  to  his  acquire- 
ments, Dr.  Goodhue  wisely  advised  more  preparation 
as  a  foundation  for  the  all-important  profession  of 
medicine  and  surgery,  and  told  the  ambitious  youth 
that  he  must  be  qualified  to  enter  the  Freshman  class 
at  Harvard  before  beginning  medical  studies. 

After  a  year  had  passed,  when  probably  the  doctor 
had  forgotten  all  about  his  aspiring  young  assistant  at 
Chester,  he  was  surprised  one  day  by  the  arrival  of 
Nathan  Smith  at  his  home,  claiming  his  promise  to  act 
as  his  instructor.  Dr.  Goodhue  found  that  this  remark- 
able young  man  had  fulfilled  all  of  the  conditions  which 
he  had  made  by  studying  industriously  during  the  year 
with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whiting  of  Rockingham,  Vt.,  and, 


Life  and  Letters 


persuaded  of  rare  characteristics  in  Nathan  Smith, 
then  just  twenty-two  years  of  age,  Dr.  Goodhue 
offered  him  a  home  and  medical  tuition  in  return  for 
certain  work  necessary  in  the  country  home  of  a  physi- 
cian. Three  years  were  thus  passed,  during  which 
time  a  strong  intimacy  and  lifelong  friendship  grew 
up  between  the  instructor  and  his  pupil. 

In  the  year  1787,  when  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
Nathan  Smith  began  the  practice  of  medicine  at  Cor- 
nish, N.  H.,  before  he  had  received  a  degree  from  any 
of  the  three  medical  schools  then  existing  in  the  United 
States,  this  plan  of  entering  the  medical  profession 
being  customary  in  that  day. 


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CHAPTER  THIRD 

Beautiful  Cornish,  N.  H.,  Where  Dr.  Nathan 
Smith  Began  the  Practice  of  Medicine 

In  order  to  understand  the  early  life  of  Nathan 
Smith  at  Cornish,  it  is  necessary  to  know  something  of 
the  state  of  the  country  in  that  neighborhood  when  he 
began  his  work  there. 

Only  about  thirty  years  had  elapsed  since  Dudley 
Chase  and  Dyer  Spalding,  with  a  party  of  workmen, 
had  gone  from  Fort  No.  4  (Charlestown),  then  the 
northernmost  settlement  in  the  State  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, to  a  well-chosen  spot  sixteen  miles  up  the  Connec- 
ticut River,  where  they  were  to  fell  the  great  forest 
trees,  clear  the  ground  and  start  the  little  town  of  Cor- 
nish. A  thrillingly  interesting  account  of  the  undertak- 
ing is  given  in  the  beautiful  history  of  Dudley  Chase's 
son,  Philander,  who  became  the  first  Bishop  of  Ohio 
and  Illinois.  It  is  stated  that  the  brave  and  lovely  wife 
of  Dudley  Chase,  Mistress  Allace  Corbett,  was  so  anx- 
ious to  share  the  companionship  and  perils  of  her  hus- 
band in  this  enterprise  that  she  prevailed  upon  Mr. 
Dyer  Spalding,  who  had  returned  to  the  fort  for  provi- 
sions, to  take  her  and  her  seven  little  children  in  a  canoe 
to  join  her  husband  before  the  men  had  found  time  even 
to  build  a  log  cabin  for  their  shelter;  but  a  tent  of  long 
strips  of  bark  was  soon  made  by  the  loving  hands  of 
the  men  for  her  and  her  little  ones,  and  no  doubt  the 
heroic  woman  was  able  to  add  much  to  the  comfort  of 


8  Life  and  Letters 


these,  the  first  settlers  of  Cornish.  Dudley's  brother 
Jonathan  and  their  father,  Judge  Samuel  Chase,  of 
Aquilla's  family  of  Newbury,  soon  followed  him  from 
Sutton,  Mass.,  their  native  town,  to  Cornish,  and  the 
settlement  became  especially  identified  with  the  Chases 
and  Spaldings. 

The  first  thirty  years  of  the  existence  of  Cornish 
had  brought  many  stirring  events  and  changes  not 
only  to  the  settlers  of  the  little  town  but  to  the  whole 
country;  for  during  that  time  freedom  from  England 
was  obtained  by  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  Cornish  had  contributed  their  share  in  bring- 
ing this  to  pass;  marching  under  the  leadership  of 
General  Jonathan  Chase  were  many  neighbors,  includ- 
ing Jonathan's  venerable  father,  Samuel  Chase,  judge 
of  the  County  of  Cheshire,  N.  H.,  already  seventy 
years  of  age.  This  regiment  marched  from  Cornish 
to  Bennington,  Vt.,  and  to  Saratoga,  N.  Y.,  and  was 
present  at  the  surrender  of  General  Burgoyne.  But  to 
the  residents  of  the  little  town  of  Cornish,  so  far 
inland  as  to  be  removed  even  from  the  news  of  the 
great  battles,  Indians  as  enemies  were  even  more  to  be 
dreaded  than  enemies  from  foreign  lands,  for  at  that 
time  savages  infested  the  neighboring  forests  and  were 
constantly  ready  to  attack. 

In  1780,  just  seven  years  before  Nathan  Smith 
came  to  Cornish,  Royalton,  Vt.,  only  a  few  miles  away, 
had  been  burned  and  destroyed  and  seven  men  of 
Randolph,  its  near  neighbor,  had  been  captured  and 
kept  prisoners  by  the  Indians  for  two  years.  But  in 
this  heroic  age,  the  courage  and  energy  of  the  pioneers 


of  Nathan  Smith 


were  boundless, — the  men,  like  the  builders  of  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem  in  Nehemiah's  time,  had  their  implements 
of  defense  always  at  hand  while  with  a  "mind  to  work" 
they  cleared  the  land,  built  their  homes,  made  their 
own  farm  implements  and  attended  to  their  flocks  and 
herds.  The  women,  no  less  busy,  carded  wool,  made 
cloth  by  the  aid  of  the  loom  and  the  spinning  wheel, 
knitted  stockings  and  attended  to  the  pickling  and  pre- 
serving of  meats  and  fruits  as  well  as  to  the  cooking 
of  the  food.  Not  many  idle  moments  could  have  been 
spent  by  these  early  settlers  of  the  country  and  yet  they 
seem  to  have  had  time  for  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren. Four  of  the  sons  of  Dudley  Chase  graduated 
from  Dartmouth,  while  Allace,  one  of  his  daughters, 
is  said  to  have  been  able  to  repeat  the  whole  of 
Homer's  Iliad  and  to  have  kept  up  with  her  brothers 
in  their  studies  at  Dartmouth. 

But  this  period  of  the  country's  history  was  so 
marked  in  many  districts  by  great  ignorance  and  super- 
stition in  regard  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  that  the  pres- 
ence of  a  well-trained  young  physician  among  them 
received  a  kindly  and  hearty  welcome  from  the  families 
at  Cornish,  and  a  special  intimacy  grew  up  between 
the  Chases  and  Spaldings  and  Nathan  Smith.  Young 
Lyman  Spalding,  then  a  lad  of  twelve  or  fifteen  years, 
became  his  ardent  admirer,  and  from  that  time  was 
so  influenced  by  his  example  and  good  work  that  he 
resolved  to  enter  the  medical  profession,  in  which  he 
afterwards  rose  to  distinction. 

We  are  not  informed  as  to  Dr.  Smith's  reason  for 
selecting  this  Cornish  region  for  his  professional  work, 


10  Life  and  Letters 


but,  as  artists  and  authors  of  this  day  have  discovered, 
no  one  could  visit  the  neighborhood  without  being 
impressed  by  its  natural  advantages  and  beauty. 

Nestled  at  the  very  foot  of  Mt.  Ascutney,  on  a 
broad  bend  of  the  Connecticut  River,  is  the  little  town 
of  Windsor,  Vt.,  which,  by  means  of  a  most  picturesque 
old  covered  bridge,  spanning  the  river,  is  so  connected 
with  Cornish  that  the  two  villages  are  practically  one. 
From  this  bridge,  through  a  wonderful  New  England 
forest,  a  short  road  leads  up  to  the  part  of  Cornish 
once  owned  by  General  Jonathan  Chase  and  his  fam- 
ily, and  it  is  evidently  here  that  Dr.  Smith  spent  much 
of  his  time. 

Two  years  of  practice  at  Cornish  but  served  to  im- 
press upon  the  young  physician  the  importance  of  fur- 
ther knowledge  in  the  great  field  of  medicine  and  sur- 
gery. Accordingly  he  gave  up  his  practice  there  to  go  to 
Cambridge,  where  he  attended  "the  lectures  of  Dr. 
John  Warren  on  Anatomy  and  Surgery,  Dr.  Aaron 
Dexter  on  Chemistry  and  Materia  Medica,  and  Dr. 
Benjamin  Waterhouse,  of  the  Medical  Department,  on 
Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine ;  besides  the  medical 
lectures  he  attended  those  of  Professor  Samuel  Webber 
on  Natural  Philosophy,  in  the  College;  and  these  to- 
gether probably  constituted  his  first  course  of  lectures. 
At  the  Harvard  Commencement  in  1790,  he  took  the 
degree  of  M.B.  (Bachelor  of  Medicine),  the  only  one 
in  a  class  of  four,  and  the  fourth  graduate  in  the  Medi- 
cal School  of  Harvard."1  It  was  on  that  occasion  that  he 

1  The  statement  stands  as  quoted  in  Dr.  Hubbard's  discourse,  and  he 
evidently  derived  his  facts  from  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.     The 


The  Episcopal  Church  at  Cornish 


The  Graveyard  Next  to  the  Episcopal  Church 

The  grave  marked  is  that  of  Elizabeth,  the  first  wife  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 


of  Nathan  Smith  // 

read  an  "Inaugural  Dissertation  on  the  Circulation  of 
the  Blood,"  which  was  received  with  high  approbation 
and  published  at  the  request  of  the  faculty. 

Immediately  after  the  receipt  of  his  diploma,  Dr. 
Smith  returned  to  his  friends  and  professional  work 
at  Cornish,  where  his  friendship  with  the  Chases  was 
cemented  by  his  marriage  on  January  16,  1791,  with 
Elizabeth,  one  of  the  daughters  of  General  Jonathan 
and  his  first  wife,  Thankful  Sherman  Chase.  But  his 
happiness  with  his  young  wife  was  of  short  duration, 
for  she  died  on  April  14,  1793,  leaving  no  children. 
In  those  early  days,  however,  it  was  universally  felt 
that  "it  is  not  good  that  a  man  should  be  alone"; 
exigencies  of  home  life  demanded  that  each  man  should 
provide  himself  a  helpmeet  and  early  marriages  were 
the  order  of  the  day.  When  death  separated  even  the 
most  loving  couples,  second  and  third  marriages  were 
often  contracted. 

Such  being  the  custom  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn 
that  some  time  after  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  Dr.  Smith 
began  to  realize  a  growing  interest  in  the  bright  and 
gifted  Sarah,  a  half-sister  of  his  wife,  and  daughter  of 
the  General  and  his  second  wife,  Sarah  (Hall)  Chase. 

account  in  the  Harvard  Quinquennial  Catalogue  does  not,  however, 
bear  out  this  statement,  and  application  to  the  authorities  at  Harvard 
reveals  the  fact  that,  since  the  writing  of  the  above,  three  names  have 
been  added  to  the  list  of  graduates  in  medicine,  making  a  showing  of 
two  names,  instead  of  one,  to  each  of  the  first  three  classes.  "Since 
1875,  and  especially  at  the  time  the  Quinquennial  Catalogue  was  trans- 
lated from  Latin  to  English,  the  Corporation  records  were  carefully- 
examined  and  the  three  names  added  to  the  classes  of  1788,  1789, 
1790." 


12  Life  and  Letters 


This  young  girl  had  been  a  mere  child  at  the  time  of 
her  sister's  marriage,  on  which  occasion  she  is  said,  in 
her  admiration  for  Dr.  Smith,  to  have  pushed  her  way 
in  beside  him  and  stood  for  a  while  between  the  bride 
and  groom. 

Having  fixed  upon  his  choice,  Dr.  Smith  determined 
upon  asking  of  her  parents  her  hand  in  marriage.  The 
letter  by  which  Dr.  Smith  addressed  Sarah  is  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  man,  being  such  a  rare  combination  of 
vehemence  in  love  and  straightforwardness  in  business, 
that  it  cannot  be  omitted  here,  and  is  as  follows : 

"Cornish,  N.  H.,  January  22,  1794. 
Sally : 

You  will  excuse  the  precipitancy  with  which  I  proceed 
in  my  endeavors  to  accomplish  my  connection  with  you. 
I  expected  last  evening  to  have  set  off  for  Hanover  this 
morning,  and  I  could  not  endure  the  least  uncertainty 
till  I  returned,  therefore  I  discovered  my  wishes 
respecting  you  to  your  Sire  and  Marm  last  evening,  and 
they  have  generously  given  me  leave  to  marry  with  you. 

I  hope  I  shall  never  meet  with  your  disapprobation. 
Transported  with  Joy  and  Expectation  I  am 

Your  sincere  Lover 

Nathan  Smith. 
Miss  Sally  H.  Chase, 
Cornish." 

Clearly  Sally  had  already  been  led  to  acknowledge 
a  willingness  to  accede  to  his  desire  before  her  "Sire" 


General  Jonathan   Chase 

Father  of  Mrs.  Nathan  Smith 


of  Nathan  Smith  13 

and  "Marm"  were  approached.  Their  consent  having 
now  been  obtained,  Nathan  Smith  and  Sarah  Hall 
Chase  were  married  in  September,  1794,  and  this  mar- 
riage proved  a  happy  one  in  every  way,  Sarah  being  a 
true  helpmeet  in  the  home  of  her  husband. 

By  his  union  with  her  Dr.  Smith  became  connected 
with  a  large  circle  of  New  England  families  of  promi- 
nence, although  none  of  them  were  very  rich  in  this 
world's  goods.  Sarah  was  the  granddaughter  of  the 
Rev.  David  and  Elizabeth  Prescott  Hall  on  her 
mother's  side,  and  of  Judge  Samuel  and  Mary  Dudley 
Chase  on  her  father's. 

The  Chases  had  by  this  time  acquired  by  thrift  and 
economy  what  in  that  day  might  have  been  considered 
at  least  a  competency.  They  had  built  substantial 
houses  in  Cornish,  where  they  were  able  to  enjoy  great 
comfort,  and  had  also  extended  their  possessions  in 
lands  and  promoted  other  settlements  in  their  state. 
Dr.  Smith,  the  only  physician  in  the  neighborhood,  soon 
acquired  a  large  practice,  making  his  rounds  to  distant 
places  either  on  horseback  or  by  stage.  On  the  27th  of 
June,  1795,  a  son  was  born  to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Smith,  to 
whom  they  gave  the  name  "David  Solon  Chase  Hall 
Smith,"  all  family  names  except  the  Solon,  which  came 
from  Ossian, — evidently  a  favorite  poet  of  the  time, — 
and  this  became  the  name  by  which  this  son  was  always 
called. 

As  a  devoted  husband  and  father,  with  a  good  prac- 
tice and  every  prospect  of  happiness,  it  would  have  been 
but  natural  for  Dr.  Smith  to  content  himself  with  life 
in   Cornish,   enjoying  his   domestic   felicity.      But  the 


14  Life  and  Letters 


feeling  that  fellow  beings  were  suffering  and  dying  on 
account  of  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  the  science  of 
medicine,  gave  him  no  rest,  knowing  as  he  did  that 
numbers  of  ambitious  young  men  lacked  only  the  oppor- 
tunity of  acquiring  good  medical  instruction  to  fit 
them,  as  educated  physicians,  to  become  blessings  to 
humanity. 


Mrs.   Jonathan   Chase 

Mother  of  Mrs.  Nathan  Smith 


CHAPTER  FOURTH 

The    Founding    of    the    Dartmouth    Medical 

School.    Dr.  Smith's  Voyage  to  Edinburgh, 

Where  He  Continues  His  Medical 

Studies 

Strong  in  the  determination  to  provide  opportunities 
for  this  needed  instruction,  Dr.  Smith  applied  to  the 
trustees  of  Dartmouth  College,  at  their  annual  meeting 
in  August,  1796,  for  their  approbation  of  a  plan  he  had 
devised  for  establishing  a  Professorship  of  the  Theory 
and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  connection  with  Dart- 
mouth. His  plan  was  fully  approved  by  President  John 
Wheelock;  the  scheme,  novel  and  far-reaching,  was 
favorably  received  and  discussed  by  the  trustees,  a 
resolution  complimentary  to  the  character  and  energy 
of  Dr.  Smith  passed,  and  hope  given  for  future 
encouragement;  but  it  was  voted  to  postpone  final 
action  upon  the  proposition  for  a  year.  This  unsatis- 
factory response  to  his  generous  offer  might  have 
entirely  discouraged  an  ordinary  man,  but  Dr.  Smith 
was  only  stimulated  to  new  effort  and  determined  to 
persevere  in  what  he  hoped  might  benefit  many  suf- 
ferers, for  the  only  three  schools  then  in  the  United 
States  where  medicine  was  taught  were  those  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Medical  School  of 
Columbia  College  and  the  Medical  School  of  Harvard 
College. 


16  Life  and  Letters 


In  the  absence  of  railroads,  the  distances  to  be 
traveled  made  it  almost  impossible  for  young  men  of 
moderate  means  to  attend  these  schools,  and  one  desir- 
ing to  study  medicine  was  compelled  to  apprentice 
himself  to  a  physician  who  would  instruct  him  in  return 
for  some  menial  work  as  office  helper  or  farm  hand. 
In  consequence  of  the  lack  of  proper  instruction,  few 
physicians  of  that  day  were  at  all  qualified  to  attend  the 
sick. 

Dr.  Smith,  with  his  usual  energy  and  far-sightedness, 
decided  to  utilize  the  months  of  waiting  for  the  trustees 
of  Dartmouth  to  accept  his  offer,  by  acquiring  for  him- 
self more  knowledge  of  his  profession,  and,  in  order  to 
get  the  best  instruction  that  could  be  had,  he  concluded 
to  become  a  student  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
then  one  of  the  most  noted  medical  schools  of  the 
world.  Almost  insurmountable  difficulties  beset  this 
undertaking,  for  not  only  had  he  to  part  with  his 
family,  friends,  and  patients,  but  crossing  the  ocean  in 
midwinter  on  a  rather  small  sailing  vessel  was  attended 
by  many  perils,  and  his  very  limited  means  made  it 
necessary  for  him  to  borrow  a  greater  part  of  the 
money  to  pay  the  way.  His  integrity  of  character  was, 
however,  so  well  established  that  the  Hon.  Sanford 
Kingsbury  and  other  friends  willingly  loaned  a  sufficient 
sum  to  cover  whatever  part  of  the  expense  Dr.  Smith 
himself  could  not  provide. 

Plans  for  the  long  journey  were  made  with  a  view 
to  the  greatest  economy,  and  every  expense  considered 
and  eliminated  as  far  as  possible.    The  horse  was  sold 


of  Nathan  Smith  17 

and  the  proceeds  used  toward  defraying  the  cost  of  the 
passage  to  Glasgow,  this  route  being  selected  in  prefer- 
ence to  that  by  way  of  London  because  the  price  of  the 
voyage  to  London  was  $170,  while  Glasgow  could  be 
reached  for  $75. 

Great  care  and  self-denial  attended  all  the  arrange- 
ments for  this  journey.  He  wrote  to  Dr.  Lyman  Spald- 
ing before  sailing:  "Respecting  my  voyage  I  am  not 
so  well  provided  for  as  I  could  wish,  but  must  put  my 
trust  in  God  and  not  in  filthy  lucre."  His  farewell 
letters  to  his  wife  were  full  of  tender  solicitude  for  her 
and  his  little  son,  although  he  took  comfort  in  knowing 
that  they  would  be  well  cared  for  by  her  father  and 
mother. 

Just  before  sailing  from  Boston  he  wrote  the  follow- 
ing: 

"On  Board  the  Bark  Hope,  December  17,  1796. 

Now  for  the  last  time,  until  I  arrive  in  Europe,  I 
address  you.  I  have  lately  sent  you  two  letters,  which 
I  hope  you  will  receive  without  delay.  I  have  in  them 
expressed  my  love  and  constancy  to  you,  and  my  tender- 
ness for  the  dear  little  Solon.  All  my  anxiety  is  for  my 
family.  I  fear  no  danger  but  on  their  account.  I  have 
been  very  fortunate  since  I  left  home,  all  excepting 
some  delay  in  sailing,  which  I  do  not  much  regret,  as  I 
have  been  able  to  procure  letters  and  other  advantages 
in  this  town  which  I  should  not  have  done  if  I  had 
sailed  immediately.  Do,  my  dear,  remember  me.  You 
are  ever  on  my  mind.    I  am  sure  I  shall  ever  be  happy 


18  Life  and  Letters 


if  I  live  to  return  and  find  you  and  Solon  alive  and  well. 
Do  be  careful  of  our  dear  little  son.  I  shall  keep  you 
in  mind,  and  hope  to  return  happy.  It  is  my  constant 
prayer,  and  if  good  intentions  can  have  any  influence 
on  our  fortune,  I  am  sure  I  shall  succeed. 

P.  S. — We  expect  a  fair  wind  in  the  morning,  and 
a  pleasant  voyage.  There  are  four  passengers  on 
board,  all  very  agreeable.  The  vessel  is  as  good  and 
safe  as  ever  sailed  from  Boston,  a  fine  Captain  and 
crew,  all  very  obliging  and  civil.  I  lack  for  nothing  to 
make  me  happy  but  your  company,  with  Solon." 

The  bark  "Hope"  left  with  her  five  passengers, 
captain  and  crew  on  December  18,  1796.  After  land- 
ing and  gaining  what  he  could  at  Glasgow,  Dr.  Smith 
proceeded  to  Edinburgh,  where  for  three  months  he 
attended  the  lectures  of  Monro,  Secundus,  on  Anatomy 
and  Surgery,  and  of  Black  on  Chemistry. 

A  letter  to  his  wife  from  Edinburgh  shows  the  depth 
of  his  affection  for  his  family  and  what  a  sacrifice  he 
was  making  in  separating  himself  from  his  home  in 
order  to  accomplish  the  great  work  that  he  hoped  to 
do  for  humanity.  Evidently  when  he  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing letter  his  homesickness  was  so  intense  that  he 
felt  tempted  to  give  up  the  struggle  and  return  to 
America  in  the  early  spring,  but  his  strong  will  and 
great  ambition  came  to  the  rescue  and  he  bravely  per- 
severed and  eventually  decided  to  remain  abroad  until 
September. 


of  Nathan  Smith  ig 

Addressed  to  Mrs.  Sally  H.  Smith 
Cornish, 

State  of  New  Hampshire. 
"My  dear  Sally: 

I  am  quite  homesick  tho'  very  well  on  all  other 
accounts.  You  cannot,  and  I  hope  you  never  will  by 
similar  experience,  be  sensible  of  the  anxiety  I  have 
suffered  since  I  left  my  home  and  family.  Tho'  I  am 
every  day  surrounded  with  new  and  interesting  scenes 
and  am  treated  with  great  kindness  and  attention  by 
the  people  here,  yet  my  thoughts  continually  turn  on 
you  and  our  dear  little  son,  whose  name  I  cannot  write 
without  shedding  tears  on  it.  I  imagine  a  thousand 
evils  ready  to  befall  him.  I  see  him  every  night  in  my 
dreams  and  often  wake  myself  by  attempting  to  grasp 
him,  but  he  always  eludes  my  fond  embrace  and  leaves 
me  to  mourn  his  absence.  Do  my  dear,  if  he  be  still 
living,  and  I  dare  not  think  otherwise,  do,  I  say,  watch 
over  him  with  maternal  care,  kiss  him  for  me  a  thou- 
sand times  each  day  and  tell  him  that  his  papa  is 
coming  soon. 

In  my  letter  which  I  wrote  you  while  in  Glasgow  I 
mentioned  that  I  might  not  be  at  home  till  June,  but  I 
think  now  that  I  shall  come  sooner.  I  am  now  in  Edin- 
burgh, shall  stay  here  but  a  few  days,  shall  then  go  to 
London  where  I  shall  make  but  a  short  stop  and  then 
sail  immediately  to  Boston.  I  have  had  no  material 
misfortune  since  I  came  here ;  have  become  acquainted 
with  the  Medical  Professors  here,  and  am  attending 
their  lectures.    I  have  a  prospect  of  accomplishing  my 


20  Life  and  Letters 


purpose  to  my  mind.  I  have  bought  several  books  for 
your  amusement,  some  of  them  written  in  the  Scotch 
Dialect  with  an  explanation  which  will  give  you  a  very 
just  idea  of  the  customs  and  manners  of  the  Scotch 
people.  Present  my  best  Respects  to  your  Honored 
parents,  give  my  fondest  love  to  your  brother  and 
sisters  and  remember  me  with  fond  affection  to  all  our 
relatives  and  friends.  Present  my  compliments  to  my 
pupils  and  inform  them  that  I  shall,  God  willing,  be 
with  them  again  in  May  or  sooner.  Remember  me  in 
particular  to  my  brother  and  to  every  one  with  you  in 
my  home.  I  am,  my  dear  Sally,  yours  with  the  fondest 
love  and  conjugal  affection  till  Death,  which  God  grant 
may  be  at  a  late  day.    Adieu,  my  dear,  for  a  little. 

Nathan  Smith. 
February  23,  1797.    Edinburgh." 

While  in  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Smith  purchased  and  "sent 
home  to  the  college  library  medical  books  to  the  value 
of  thirty  pounds  sterling  and  brought  with  him  appara- 
tus for  anatomy,  surgery,  and  chemistry  which  he 
deemed  indispensable  for  commencing  the  proposed 
medical  institution"  and  which  he  hoped  the  trustees 
of  Dartmouth  might  purchase,  as  he  "could  ill  afford 
to  bear  the  expense  himself." 

After  leaving  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Smith  spent  three 
months  in  London,  where  he  engaged  in  hospital  work 
with  eminent  physicians,  before  returning  to  Boston 
on  the  ship  "Apollo"  early  in  September,  1797. 

In  this  visit  of  nine  months  to  older  countries  Dr. 


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of  Nathan  Smith  21 

Smith  acquired  a  great  deal  of  valuable  information  on 
medical  subjects  as  well  as  a  broader  knowledge  of  the 
world  in  general,  and  the  good  impression  made  by  the 
enterprising  young  American  upon  foreign  friends  was 
attested  by  letters  from  them  to  other  American  phy- 
sicians, as  also  by  a  diploma,  which  was  sent  to  him  in 
1797  on  his  return,  from  the  Medical  Society  of  Lon- 
don, accompanied  by  a  notice  of  his  election  as  Corre- 
sponding Member  of  their  organization. 

On  Dr.  Smith's  arrival  at  his  home  in  Cornish  he 
not  only  found  his  wife  and  Solon  well,  but  he  had 
acquaintance  to  make  with  a  second  son,  Nathan  Ryno 
Smith,  a  fine  boy  four  months  old,  who  was  born  on 
May  21,  1797.  A  pretty  story  is  told  of  this  happy 
meeting:  When  Mrs.  Smith  was  preparing  for  the 
father's  coming,  she  borrowed  several  babies  from 
neighbors  and  made  Dr.  Smith  select  his  own  from 
among  them,  which  he  immediately  succeeded  in  doing, 
for,  as  he  said,  he  "picked  for  the  prettiest."  Although 
this  son  Nathan  was  his  father's  namesake,  a  name 
from  Ossian's  poems  was  again  supplemented,  and 
"Ryno"  became  the  name  by  which  he  was  always 
called  in  the  home. 

Not  much  time  could  be  spared  by  Dr.  Smith  for 
the  enjoyment  of  his  family  and  home  at  Cornish,  for 
he  was  obliged  to  go  very  soon  after  his  arrival  to 
Dartmouth  to  put  into  operation  the  plan  for  estab- 
lishing the  medical  department,  which  the  trustees  of 
the  college  had  decided  to  accept. 


CHAPTER  FIFTH 

Both  taste  and  good  judgment  were  shown  by 
Eleazar  Wheelock  and  his  little  company,  when  in 
1770  they  selected  the  site  of  Hanover  for  the  Indian 
and  American  College  of  Dartmouth.  The  land  about 
it  was  fertile,  the  climate  very  healthful,  the  scenery 
around  the  high  plateau  upon  which  it  is  built  exceed- 
ingly varied  and  picturesque.  In  one  direction  between 
the  branches  of  the  lofty  elms  and  pines  were  opened 
up  vistas  of  still  higher  hills,  and  valleys  so  deep  that, 
in  ascending  from  them,  the  cattle,  as  they  grazed, 
made  circuitous  paths  as  in  mountain  districts.  From 
another  point  could  be  seen  the  beautiful  Connecticut 
River,  which  in  its  windings  formed  the  boundary  line 
between  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  and  not  only 
added  variety  to  the  wonderful  scene,  but  brought 
many  practical  gifts  and  privileges  of  great  value  to 
the  new  settlement. 

No  wonder  that  a  place  so  full  of  natural  advan- 
tages, and  a  knowledge  of  the  energy  of  those  pioneers 
in  undertaking  the  education  and  civilization  of  Indian 
youths,  appealed  to  the  generosity  of  many  noble  men 
and  women  and  made  them  willing  to  help  on  the  good 
work  by  their  donations,  until,  during  the  twenty-six 
years  which  elapsed  between  the  founding  of  the  col- 
lege and  the  offer  of  Dr.  Smith  to  establish  the  medical 
school  in  connection  with  it,  the  reputation  of  the  insti- 
tution had  spread  over  the  country,  and  Dartmouth  had 


Nathan  Smith  23 


become  recognized  as  one  of  the  best  colleges  in  the 
United  States. 

But  in  those  early  days  it  was  not  in  the  power  of  the 
most  generous  to  give  largely,  for  the  early  inhabitants 
of  the  country  were  poor,  and  even  the  best  of  schools 
had  to  struggle  for  the  means  to  erect  suitable  buildings 
to  carry  on  its  work,  and  this,  the  first  college  of  New 
Hampshire,  was  no  exception  to  that  rule. 

"The  first  full  course  of  Medical  Lectures  was 
delivered  by  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  at  Dartmouth  in  the 
Autumn  of  1797  before  his  election  as  Professor." 
Dr.  Oliver  P.  Hubbard  in  his  "Historical  Discourse" 
at  Dartmouth,  from  which  the  writer  of  this  history 
largely  quotes,  says  that  "in  August,  1798,  the  plan 
proposed  by  Dr.  Smith  in  1796  was  adopted  by  the 
Trustees,  and  he  was  appointed  a  Professor,  'whose 
duty  it  shall  be  to  deliver  public  lectures  upon  Anatomy, 
Surgery,  Chemistry,  and  the  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Physic'  A  complete  schedule  was  prescribed  as  to 
the  course  of  lectures  and  the  conditions  of  study  and 
graduation,  and  the  degree  of  A.M.  was  conferred  on 
Dr.  Smith,  while  that  of  M.D.  only  came  in  1801. 
The  fable  of  the  emergence  of  Minerva  fully  armed 
from  Jupiter's  brain  is  hardly  more  remarkable  than 
the  complete  evolution  of  this  school,  and  the  placing 
of  it  on  the  shoulders  of  one  man." 

Dr.  Smith's  great  skill  and  energy  and  his  faithful- 
ness to  duty  carried  forward  the  work  of  this,  the 
fourth  medical  school  of  the  country,  with  such  surpris- 
ing success  that  students  came  in  numbers  to  be  under 
his  instruction. 


24.  Life  and  Letters 


In  August,  1798,  two  young  men  received  the  degree 
of  M.B.,  one  of  whom  was  the  afterwards  noted  Dr. 
Gallup.  The  degree  of  A.M.  was  at  the  same  time 
conferred  by  the  trustees  upon  Dr.  Smith. 

But  notwithstanding  the  phenomenal  growth  of  the 
Medical  School  at  Dartmouth  carried  on  by  one  man, 
Dr.  Smith's  trials  and  discouragements  were  so  great 
that  few  men  thus  situated  would  have  persevered  in 
the  undertaking.  Having  no  salary  from  the  college 
to  help  towards  the  expenses  of  the  school  or  the  sup- 
port of  his  family,  he  was  dependent  upon  the  small  pay 
then  exacted  from  medical  students  and  the  meagre 
returns  from  his  practice,  which,  although  extensive, 
was  far  from  lucrative,  and  had  to  be  attended  under 
difficulties,  on  horseback,  over  bad  roads,  and  often  in 
inclement  weather  both  in  winter  and  summer. 

The  accommodations  for  the  medical  department 
were  also  small  and  inadequate.  Dr.  Hubbard  says 
that  tradition  points  to  "a  small  two-story  house  of 
four  rooms"  as  its  first  home,  and  in  August,  1799,  the 
trustees  devoted  and  fitted  up,  for  Dr.  Smith's  lectures, 
Room  No.  6  in  the  northeast  corner  and  first  story  of 
Dartmouth  Hall — a  building  which,  during  the  hun- 
dred years  of  its  existence,  by  its  beauty  and  suitability 
well  repaid  the  "long  agony  of  effort"  which  its  erec- 
tion is  said  to  have  cost. 

But  no  inconvenience  of  surroundings  prevented  Dr. 
Smith  from  persevering  in  his  noble  work.  He  not 
only  taught  faithfully  and  attended  untiringly  to  his 
large  practice,  but  he  kept  in  touch  with  physicians  of 


of  Nathan  Smith  25 


the  large  cities,  and  was  ever  ready  with  keen  interest 
to  avail  himself  of  new  discoveries. 

Jenner  published  his  great  work  on  Variola  Vaccina 
in  London  in  1798,  and  to  Dr.  Benjamin  Waterhouse 
is  given  the  credit  of  being  the  first  to  practice  vaccina- 
tion in  the  United  States,  for  he  is  said  to  have  vacci- 
nated his  own  family  on  July  8,  1800;  but,  if  not  the 
first,  Dr.  Smith  and  his  pupil,  Dr.  Spalding,  were  cer- 
tainly not  far  behind  Dr.  Waterhouse  in  adopting  the 
use  of  vaccine,  for,  under  date  of  Hanover,  August 
25,  1800,  Dr.  Smith  wrote  to  Dr.  Spalding:  "I  have 
to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  two  letters  from  you  since 
I  wrote  you  and  am  under  great  obligation  to  you  for 
the  kine-pox  infection  which  I  received  in  your  first 
letter.  I  have  always  been  of  the  opinion  that  we 
should  arrive  at  such  a  degree  of  knowledge  about  the 
kine-pox  as  to  make  it  a  substitute  for  the  small-pox 
and  attributed  our  failure  of  it  in  several  instances  to 
our  ignorance  of  the  proper  mode  of  communicating 
it.  I  have  used  some  of  the  infection  that  you  sent  me. 
I  have  never  subjected  any  of  my  patients  to  the 
infection  of  the  small-pox." 

This  letter  with  its  date  clearly  shows  that  before 
August  25,  1800,  Dr.  Smith  had  been  practicing 
vaccination. 

Among  Dr.  Smith's  very  old  ledgers,  containing 
heads  of  his  lectures,  there  is  one  marked  Hanover. 
On  the  inside  of  the  cover  is  pasted  the  very  plain 
book  plate  shown  on  a  following  page. 


26  Life  and  Letters 


And  on  the  first  blank  fly  leaf  he  has  written : 

Heads  of  Lectures.    Anatomy. 

Nathan  Smith  M.D.— C.S.M.S.  Lond. 

Prof.  Medicine  Dartmouth  College 
New  Hampshire. 


Throughout  the  book,  the  paper  and  ink  are  in  excel- 
lent preservation.  The  writing  is  evidently  intended 
for  his  own  eyes  alone,  for  it  was  rapidly  and  vigor- 
ously penned  to  serve  as  suggestions  in  his  extem- 
poraneous manner  of  delivering  lectures. 

The  first  lecture  is  on  anatomy  and  gives  the  Greek 
derivation  of  the  word,  and,  as  was  Dr.  Smith's  custom 
in  all  that  he  did  or  said,  he  commenced  at  the  very 
foundation  of  things  and  traced  the  history  in  outline 
along  from  the  ancients  to  the  day  in  which  he  was 
lecturing.  He  found  the  era  of  philosophy  beginning 
with  the  Ionian  Thales  in  480  B.  C.  Socrates,  the 
seventh  in  succession,  introduced  the  study  of  morals, 
bringing  down  philosophy  from  Heaven  to  make  men 
truly  wise.  "Plato  was  his  scholar,  and  by  his  writings 
we  see  that  he  had  studied  Anatomy.  He  said  that 
'the  heart  was  the  knot  of  the  blood  vessels,  and  that 
the  blood  was  the  food  of  the  flesh.' 

"Hippocrates  was  nearly  contemporary  with  Plato, 
— about  400  B.  C.  From  the  time  of  Hippocrates  to 
Galen,  who  flourished  about  the  second  century  in  the 


\*  *  *****  *f  *«■  *  **  *  ft*  *•*  *  **V*  *  *  *  J) 
&  THE  K 

Yi        PROPERTY        U 

#S  O  F  « 

|nathan   SMITH,f 

y        Hanover,  New-fiampjhire.        ># 

p  ±X  !.-)■  j.  1  !  Vf  V  f  <"f-r-M-f-t-H--f44-f^ 


The  Book  Plate  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 
Photographed  from  the  one  in  his  ledger  of  1800 


of  Nathan  Smith  27 

decline  of  the  Roman  Empire,  a  space  of  six  hundred 
years,  anatomy  was  greatly  improved.  These  two 
great  men  raised  the  credit  of  natural  knowledge  and 
spread  it  as  wide  as  Alexander's  Empire.  Civilization 
and  improvements  of  every  kind  are  thought  to  have 
begun  in  the  fertile  countries  of  the  East.  .   .   . 

"It  does  not  appear  from  the  history  we  have  of  the 
Jews,  who  went  out  from  Egypt  when  that  country  had 
arrived  at  considerable  improvement  in  other  arts  and 
sciences,  that  they  had  much  knowledge  of  anatomy. 

"We  read  of  physicians,  but  how  or  in  what  manner 
they  were  instructed,  we  have  no  account  of,  and,  if  we 
may  judge  from  some  of  the  Jewish  ceremonies  which 
were  observed  in  preventing  and  curing  disease,  we 
shall  conclude  that  the  rational  system  of  physic  was 
not  then  taught.  Witchery  and  marvelous  applications 
being  in  vogue  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  their  ignorance  in 
natural  knowledge. 

"We  read  that  Samuel  hewed  Agag  to  pieces,  but  we 
do  not  learn  that  he  did  it  to  acquire  anatomical  knowl- 
edge. On  the  contrary  we  are  informed  that  he  did  it 
in  obedience  to  a  Divine  Command." 

This  interesting  introductory  lecture  is  continued  in 
rather  unfinished  sentences  and  clauses,  and  naturally, 
being  hurriedly  penned,  some  of  it  is  difficult  to 
decipher,  but  all  that  Dr.  Smith  ever  wrote  or  said 
showed  not  only  deep  thought  and  study,  but  a  direct 
and  perfectly  original  and  interesting  way  of  imparting 
information,  often  adding  to  sound  teaching  the  spice 
of  wit. 

A  lecture  on  osteology  follows  the  introductory  lee- 


28 


Life  and  Letters 


ture  on  anatomy,  and  then  a  general  description  of  the 
human  body,  etc. 

Lectures  on  physic  follow  those  on  anatomy  and  then 
come  a  number  of  lectures  on  chemistry.  At  the  back 
of  the  book  Dr.  Smith  carefully  recorded  the  names  of 
his  pupils  under  the  heading  "Catalogue  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  classes  who  attended  lectures  in  1800  and 
1 801."  These  lists  are  here  appended  with  a  photo- 
graph of  one  of  the  pages. 


Seniors  for  1800 

Josiah  Noyes 
Nathaniel  Shattuck 
Daniel  Parker 
Elisha  Hotchkiss 
Daniel  Campbell 
Thomas  A.  Merrill 
H.  W.  Fuller 
Ephraim  Simonds 
Freeborn  Adams 
Asahel  Stone 
Matthew  Taylor 
Abner  Howe 
Caleb  J.  Tenney 
Simeon  Lyman 
Daniel  Webster 
James  H.  Bingham 
Elihu  Smith 
Lemuel  Bliss 
Ebenezer  Janes 


Juniors  for  1800 

Elisha  Rockwood 
Amos  J.  Cook 
Moses  M.  Fisk 
Amos  Twitchell 
Josiah  Moulton 
Samuel  Whitmore 
Nathaniel  Huse 
Joseph  Richardson 
Joseph  Paine 
Samuel  Eastman 
Augustus  Alden 
Daniel  Phelps 
Nathaniel  Dutton 
John  Frink 
Jacob  Gillett 
Joseph  Mulliken 


of  Nathan  Smith 


29 


Catalogue  of  the  Members  of 
the  Senior  Class  who  at- 
tended Medical  lectures  in 
1801. 

Amos  Cook 

Cutting 

Brown  Emerson 
Elisha  Hammond 
Joseph  Richardson 

Rockwood 

Amos  Twitchell 
Samuel  Walker 
Samuel  Whitmore 
Roswell  Willard 
Nathan  Wood 


Catalogue  of  the  Members  of 
the  Junior  Class  who  at- 
tended Medical  lectures  in 
1801. 

Luther  Chapman 
Jonathan  Eastman 
Isaac  Garvin 
Jonathan  Gilmore 
Samuel  Haines 
Frederic  Hall 
Henry  Hubbard 
Nehemiah  Huntington 
Benjamin  Kimbal[l] 
John  Keyes  [Keys] 
Vryling  Lovell 
Joseph  A.  Marshall 
Ebenr.  Morse 
R.  Dimond  Mussey 
John  Nelson 
Salmon  Nye 
Thad[d]eus  Osgood 
Edmun[d]  Parker 
Samuel  Peabody 
Augustus  Peabody 
Jeremiah  Perley 
Samuel  Phelps 
John  Porter 
Experience  Porter 
Silas  H.  Sabin 
George  Shattuck 
John  B.  Storey 
Enoch  E.  Tilton 
Nathan  Weston 
Luke  Wood 
Jabez  Woodman 

Storrs 

Azor  Moody 
Jesse  Billings 


SO  Life  and  Letters 


These  lists  show  conclusively  that  the  Dartmouth 
Medical  School  was  already  in  a  flourishing  condition 
in  the  year  1801,  when  Dr.  Smith's  only  assistant  was 
his  pupil,  Dr.  Lyman  Spalding,  whom  he  employed  at 
his  own  expense  to  give  three  courses  of  lectures  on 
chemistry  and  to  help  him  somewhat  with  his  practice. 

So  many  of  the  students  here  mentioned  became 
eminent  in  the  medical  profession,  that  comment  is 
scarcely  needed  to  certify  to  the  excellence  of  the 
instruction  which  they  must  have  received  from  Dr. 
Nathan  Smith,  and  it  has  been  said  that  no  one  could 
have  come  under  the  strong  personal  influence  of  a 
man  so  attractive,  so  wise  and  so  exemplary  in  char- 
acter, without  having  ambition  stirred  and  a  lasting 
impression  for  good  made  upon  him  for  life. 

Among  these  students  of  1800,  the  man  who  became 
most  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the  country  was 
undoubtedly  Daniel  Webster,2  but  the  names  of  Josiah 
Noyes,  Amos  Twitchell,  Phelps,  Peabody,  Emerson, 
Mussey,  Shattuck,  and,  indeed,  nearly  all  here  enumer- 
ated, are  familiar  as  eminent  either  as  physicians  or 
men  of  letters  among  the  early  settlers  of  the  country. 

In  1 80 1,  Dartmouth  again  honored  itself  in  con- 
ferring upon  Dr.  Smith  a  second  degree — this  time  that 
of  M.D.,  a  degree  then  by  no  means  common.  Up  to 
within  four  years  of  this  time  Yale  had  conferred  this 
as  an  honorary  degree  upon  but  seven  physicians,  two 
being  foreigners.     (See  Welch,  note  13.) 

But  it  was  evident  to  Dr.  Smith  that,  if  the  school 

2  Daniel    Webster    probably    took    only    chemistry    or    one    or    two 
branches. 


of  Nathan  Smith  31 

were  to  go  on  increasing  in  numbers,  more  space  must 
be  secured  and  aid  must  be  had  to  supplement  his 
small  private  funds.  He  therefore  made  personal 
application,  in  1803,  to  the  Legislature  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, which  resulted  in  an  appropriation  of  $600  for 
medical  apparatus,  and  in  the  same  year  the  trustees  of 
Dartmouth  College  provided  another  room  adjacent 
to  No.  6  already  given,  which  two  rooms  served  for 
lecture  hall,  dissecting  room,  chemical  laboratory  and 
library. 

In  addition  to  his  arduous  work  in  conducting  the 
Medical  School  at  Dartmouth  all  alone  during  the 
winter  months,  Dr.  Smith  received  a  number  of  stu- 
dents at  Windsor,  Vt.,  which  adjoins  Cornish,  and  gave 
them  private  instruction  in  medicine  in  summer.  Evi- 
dently Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  who  had  already 
received  his  degree  of  M.B.  at  Dartmouth,  had  some 
intention  of  taking  the  summer  course,  as  the  follow- 
ing letter  must  have  been  in  answer  to  one  from  him 
inquiring  about  terms,  etc. : 

"Windsor,  July  12,  1804. 
To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck. 
Sir: 

Respecting  my  terms  for  tuition  I  have  of  those  who 
have  been  educated  at  College,  133  dollars  for  tuition, 
deducting  from  that  what  they  have  paid  for  tutors 
while  in  College.  I  am  now  situated  in  Windsor,  Vt., 
have  perhaps  as  good  accommodations  for  Students  in 
the  neighborhood  as  I  had  at  Hanover.     I  have  with 


32  Life  and  Letters 


me  now  nine  medical  students  and  shall  in  time  to 
come  give  a  private  course  of  lectures  on  theory  and 
practice  every  summer  over  and  above  my  public 
course.  Respecting  the  time  of  payment,  I  have  gen- 
erally accommodated  my  students  as  to  time  &c.  If 
you  should  conclude  to  study  with  me,  I  will  do  all  in 
my  power  to  promote  your  studies.     I  am  with  respect 

Your  friend  and  servant 

Nathan  Smith." 

One  month  after  this  letter  was  written,  a  proposi- 
tion came  to  Dr.  Smith  from  Dartmouth  which  enabled 
him  to  concentrate  his  efforts  in  teaching  in  one  locality. 
In  August,  1804,  the  trustees  voted  Dr.  Smith  a  salary 
of  $200  per  year,  on  condition  that  he  should  remove 
his  family  to  Hanover  from  Cornish,  which,  on 
account  of  straitened  circumstances,  he  had  been 
unable  to  do  up  to  that  time.  Accordingly,  early  in 
the  spring  of  1805,  Hanover  became  their  settled  home 
and  this  obviated  the  necessity  for  Dr.  Smith's  con- 
stant journeys  back  and  forth. 

The  interest  excited  by  the  instruction  in  this  new 
department  is  curiously  illustrated  by  an  anecdote 
related  to  Dr.  Hubbard  by  a  gentleman  who  was, 
early  in  this  century,  an  undergraduate  in  the  college: 

"President  Wheelock  came  from  Dr.  Smith's  lec- 
ture room  to  evening  prayers  in  the  old  chapel,  and 
gave  thanks,  in  substance  as  follows: 

"  'Oh,  Lord!  we  thank  Thee  for  the  Oxygen  gas;  we 
thank  Thee  for  the  Hydrogen  gas;  and  for  all  the 


of  Nathan  Smith  33 

gases.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  Cerebrum;  we  thank 
Thee  for  the  Cerebellum,  and  for  the  Medulla  Oblon- 
gata.' 

"Isaac  Patterson,  Esq.,  Bath,  N.  H.,  Dartmouth, 
1812,  confirms  this  as  occurring  in  18 10,  in  letter, 
October  13,  1879." 


CHAPTER  SIXTH 

Friendship  of  Dr.  Smith  with  His  Pupils 
Letters  to  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck 

Friendship  between  Dr.  Smith  and  his  pupils  did 
not  end  with  their  student  days  at  the  Dartmouth 
Medical  School,  but  with  many  of  them  great  interest 
and  strong  attachment  continued  through  life. 

As  has  been  stated,  Dr.  Lyman  Spalding3  became 
his  assistant,  living  for  a  time  in  his  house,  and  Dr. 
Cyrus  Perkins4  was  selected  by  him  to  fill  the  chairs 
of  Anatomy  and  Surgery  in  1810,  when  ill  health  from 
overwork  made  it  necessary  for  Dr.  Smith  to  give  up  a 
part  of  the  great  burden  of  the  school.  But  perhaps 
no  one  of  his  pupils  was  ever  nearer  or  dearer  to  him 
than  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck.5  Their  correspondence 
was  constant  when  apart,  and  many  of  Dr.  Smith's 
letters  were  preserved  by  this  warm  friend,  who  was 
ever  ready  to  aid  his  beloved  preceptor,  often  no  doubt 

3  Lyman  Spalding,  from  his  boyhood  days  at  Cornish,  was  the 
admirer  and  emulator  of  Dr.  Smith.  He  had  secured  his  M.B.  at 
Harvard  in  1797,  taking  a  similar  degree  at  Dartmouth  in  1798,  and 
these  were  followed  by  an  M.D.  from  Dartmouth  in  1804  and  the 
same  from  Harvard  in  1811. 

4  Cyrus  Perkins,  Dartmouth  A.M.  1800;  also  Harvard  1823;  Dart- 
mouth M.B.  1802;  M.D.  1810;  also  Harvard  1823. 

5  George  Cheyne  Shattuck,  Dartmouth  A.M.  1803 ;  also  Harvard 
1807;  Dartmouth  M.B.  1806,  M.D.  1812;  also  Bowdoin  M.B.  1851; 
Dartmouth  LL.D.  1853;  1846-1852,  president  Massachusetts  Medical 
Society. 


Nathan  Smith  55 


at  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  time  and  interests.  Long 
after  the  death  of  both  of  these  good  friends,  the 
family  of  Dr.  Shattuck,  no  less  kind  than  he,  sent  Dr. 
Smith's  letters  to  his  grandson,  Dr.  Alan  P.  Smith 
of  Baltimore.  One  of  the  earliest,  bearing  the  date 
Hanover,  January  22,  1806,  is  in  answer  to  a  letter 
from  Dr.  Shattuck,  who,  after  graduating  at  Dart- 
mouth, had  gone  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
for  a  special  course  under  the  then  famous  Dr.  Rush. 
The  address  is  simply 

"To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck, 
Medical  Student, 
Philadelphia," 

and  reads  as  follows: 

"Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  the  25th  ult.  was  duly  received.  I 
rejoice  that  you  are  so  happily  situated  and  that  your 
opportunities  of  acquiring  information  equal  your 
former  expectations.  Dr.  Rush6  must  be  a  very  inter- 
esting lecturer.  As  to  his  classification  of  diseases  I 
do  not  think  it  very  material.  However  we  may  class 
diseases  we  must  study  them  in  detail.  I  have  observed 
that  men  of  genius,  having  accustomed  themselves  to 
view  objects  in  certain  relation  to  each  other  for  some 
time,  consider  their  relations  so  obvious  as  not  to 
escape   the   notice   of  the  most   inattentive   observer, 

6  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  died  in  1813.     He  was  not  a  surgeon  of  note, 
but  a  distinguished  teacher  and  general  practitioner  of  medicine. 


36  Life  and  Letters 


when  in  reality  their  reasoning  is  too  arbitrary  to  be 
followed  without  much  study  and  attention.  This  has 
generally  been  the  case  with  nosologists,  and  perhaps 
Dr.  Rush's  method  of  classing  diseases  is  not  wholly 
exempt  from  arbitrary  reasoning.  I  cannot  see  how 
nosology  is  essentially  benefited  by  adding  the  word 
'state'  to  the  name  of  diseases,  as  the  pleurisy  state, 
rheumatic  or  hydrophobic  state  of  fever.  It  is  no  new 
discovery  that  those  diseases  are  attended  with  fever, 
and  the  word  pleurisy,  rheumatism  and  hydrophobia 
give  us  as  much  information  respecting  the  disease, 
without  the  word  state,  as  with  it.  As  to  the  unity  of 
disease,  you  know  it  is  my  opinion  that  we  have  in 
medical  science  of  late  generalized  too  much  and  that 
the  progress  of  medicine  has  been  checked  by  it.  This 
mode  of  proceeding  tends  to  substitute  idleness  for 
industry,  and  dogmatism  for  patient  inquiry.  Meta- 
phorical reasoning  in  a  lecturer  will  have  one  good 
effect, — young  men  are  always  fond  of  tracing  resem- 
blances, and  if  they  do  not  carry  them  from  the  truth, 
such  reasoning  will  tend  to  engage  and  fix  their 
attention. 

Since  you  left  this  place  I  have  suffered  a  prodigious 
loss  of  books.  On  getting  my  library  together  since 
the  close  of  last  year's  course  of  lectures,  we  find  that 
22  No.'s  of  the  Medical  and  Phy.  Journal,  Med. 
Museum  and  Med.  Repository  are  missing,  with 
about  20  Vols,  of  other  books.  I  have  since  brought 
my  library  into  my  own  house  and  suffer  no  one  to 
take  a  book  without  my  knowledge. 

I  have  lately  amputated  successfully  in  Montpelier; 


of  Nathan  Smith  37 

the  subject  was  a  boy  seven  years  old,  the  disease  a 
white  swelling  in  the  knee. 

I  congratulate  you  on  obtaining  a  Royal  Stone 
medal,  and  am  with  the  sincerest  regards  for  your 
happiness  and  prosperity, 

Your  humble  servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  January  22,  1806." 

This  letter  is  especially  interesting  as  giving  the 
opinion  of  one  of  the  greatest  teachers  of  medicine 
of  that  day  about  the  methods  of  another  equally  dis- 
tinguished. It  also  tells  of  Dr.  Smith's  loss  of  valuable 
books  from  his  library  when  it  was  almost  impossible 
to  replace  them,  there  being  no  bookstores  nearer  than 
Boston,  and  even  there  rare  books  were  often  not  to 
be  found.  The  theft,  or  even  the  mislaying,  of  the 
books  so  needed  in  the  work  of  Dr.  Smith,  who  was 
willing  to  sacrifice  his  own  time  and  comfort  in  the 
effort  to  instruct  others,  seems  more  than  an  ordinary 
offense. 

As  has  been  shown,  there  never  was  a  man  more 
opposed  to  a  faulty  education  for  a  physician.  He 
fought  ignorance  and  the  improper  treatment  of  the 
sick,  and  waged  war  openly  upon  quackery,  which  was 
to  him  an  abomination.  As  early  as  in  1808,  he  wrote 
to  Dr.  Spalding  thus:  "I  wish  you  to  write  me  when 
the  next  annual  meeting  of  the  New  Hampshire  Medi- 
cal Society  will  be  holden,  and  where.  I  have  an  inten- 
tion to  attend  if  possible.     I  intend  to  renew  the  effort 


38  Life  and  Letters 


to  obtain  an  Act  of  the  Legislature  to  discourage 
quackery.  You  know  I'm  not  easily  beaten  down  in  my 
projects,  and,  though  sometimes  slow  in  execution,  yet 
keep  the  object  in  view.  The  business  was  not  judi- 
ciously managed  this  year.  I  was  out  of  town  when 
the  questions  were  tried  and  I'm  confident  that  more 
than  half  the  members  did  not  understand  the  matter. 
Several  of  the  members  have  solicited  me  to  renew 
the  application.  I  shall  attend  the  General  Court 
solely  for  medical  purposes  at  their  next  session." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  New  Hampshire  State  Medical 
Society  in  May,  1807,  it  had  been  proposed  by  Dr. 
Spalding  and  voted  that  a  resolution  to  prevent  quack- 
ery be  offered  to  the  State  Legislature, — no  physician 
to  be  qualified  for  practice  unless  a  graduate  from  a 
respectable  university,  and  no  medical  man  not  so 
qualified  to  have  legal  power  to  collect  debts. 

The  next  eight  letters,  all  written  to  Dr.  Shattuck 
between  1807  and  18 10,  are  introduced  here  in  a 
group  and  almost  without  comment,  as  they  speak 
for  themselves,  telling  of  the  perseverance  of  Dr. 
Smith  in  carrying  on  his  practice  in  medicine  and  sur- 
gery, while  working  under  difficulties  to  establish  the 
Medical  School  at  Dartmouth.  There  were  then  no 
apothecaries  anywhere  near,  and  acids  and  other  drugs 
had  to  be  brought  by  stage  from  a  great  distance, 
instruments  made  by  a  tinman  in  Boston,  to  order, 
after  drawings  found  in  books,  and  necessary  herbs 
and  plants  derived  from  the  gardens  of  friends  in 
Salem  and  Newbury. 

It  was  early  in  the  year  1808  that  Dr.  Smith,  at 


of  Nathan  Smith  39 


great  expense  to  himself,  secured  the  services  of  Dr. 
Alexander  Ramsey,7  whom  he  considered  the  best 
anatomist  in  America,  to  give  a  course  of  lectures  on 
anatomy  in  the  school.  With  the  highest  appreciation 
of  the  good  work  of  others  and  perfect  freedom  from 
professional  jealousy,  Dr.  Smith  wrote  to  Dr.  Shat- 
tuck  that  Dr.  Ramsey  had  begun  a  new  era  in  the  col- 
lege, and  put  it  in  his  power  to  do  more  in  the  science 
of  anatomy  than  he  knew  how  to  do  before. 

In  this  course  of  lectures,  Dr.  Spalding  showed  him- 
self invaluable  not  only  as  assistant  in  demonstration, 
but  also  in  bringing  from  Portsmouth  much-needed 
material  for  illustrations,  etc. 

Perhaps  these  lectures  and  the  presence  of  his 
valued  friends  filled  Dr.  Smith  with  more  enthusiasm 
than  ever  for  the  advancement  of  the  interests  of  his 
institution,  for  about  this  time  he  again  made  per- 
sonal application  to  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire 
for  an  appropriation  towards  building  a  suitable  home 
for  the  medical  school. 

In  1809,  the  sum  of  $3450  was  granted  to  him  to 
erect  a  building  of  brick  or  stone  for  its  accommoda- 
tion, but  again  a  condition  was  made  and  this  time  it 

7  Alex.  Ramsey,  anatomist,  1754-1824,  came  to  this  country  about 
1800  and  delivered  a  short  course  of  lectures  on  anatomy  and  physiol- 
ogy in  Columbia  College.  He  possessed  much  profound  learning,  but 
his  vanity,  arrogance  and  pomp,  combined  with  his  grotesque  person, 
interfered  with  his  success  as  a  teacher  and  won  him  the  name  of  the 
"Caliban  of  Science."  He  adopted  the  theory  that  the  bite  of  a 
venomous  snake  was  rendered  innoxious  by  alkalies  and  died  from  the 
results  of  an  experiment  on  himself. — National  Cyclopedia  of  American 
Biography. 


40  Life  and  Letters 


was  that  he  should  "give  a  site  for  it  and  assign  to  the 
State  his  Anatomical  Museum  and  Chemical  Appara- 
tus." Dr.  Smith  had  hoped  for  a  much  larger  sum, 
and  found  it  necessary  to  supplement  this  grant  by  over 
a  thousand  dollars,  with  the  hope  that  it  might  be 
refunded  to  him  later.  But  his  generosity  was  as 
unbounded  as  his  love  for  his  fellow  men.  He  gave 
the  site  in  1810,  and  afterwards,  finding  the  first  situa- 
tion inconvenient,  "he  conveyed  to  the  State  of  New 
Hampshire  forty-five  square  rods," — the  site  now 
occupied.  A  building  of  brick  was  erected,  seventy- 
five  by  thirty-two  feet,  having  two  commodious  lecture 
rooms  in  the  two-story  centre,  and  two  three-story 
wings  for  library,  chemical  laboratory,  museums,  etc. 

Dr.  Hubbard,  in  his  most  interesting  Historical  Dis- 
course, describes  the  enterprise  of  Dr.  Smith  as  unpre- 
cedented, in  attempting,  all  alone  and  in  face  of  almost 
insuperable  obstacles,  to  found  a  medical  school,  when 
that  at  Harvard,  the  first  college  of  New  England, 
was  being  sustained  with  difficulty  under  the  ministra- 
tions of  three  eminent  and  learned  men. 

Dr.  Smith's  letters  to  Dr.  Shattuck,  who  was  now  in 
Boston,  show  in  a  small  degree  how  he  triumphed  over 
some  of  these  barriers,  even  when  hampered  at  times 
"with  the  weight  of  business  and  with  very  ill  health," 
which  he  concealed  as  much  as  possible  for  fear  of 
alarming  his  friends  and  his  class. 

The  letter  of  November  28,  1808,  will  be  particu- 
larly interesting  to  the  profession,  as  it  gives  at  that 
early  day  some  of  Dr.  Smith's  independent  views  in 
regard  to  cancer  and  necrosis. 


of  Nathan  Smith  41 

"Hanover,  September  15,  1807. 
Dear  Sir: 

Respecting  our  doings  at  our  last  Commencement  I 
conclude  you  have  discovered  that  the  Board  of  Gov- 
ernment gave  no  doctor's  degree  in  Medicine.  Dr. 
Thatcher  was  not  formerly  proposed  the  last  year, 
and  by  a  law  of  the  Board,  no  honorary  degree  can  be 
voted  without  the  candidate  has  been  proposed  by 
some  person  at  sitting  of  the  Board  preceding.  Dr. 
Thatcher  now  stands  proposed  and  will  probably  be 
honored  by  a  degree  at  our  next  meeting.55 

I  have  been  pestered  with  a  number  of  letters  from 
several  persons,  in  and  about  Boston,  who  appear  to 
have  made  very  great  exertions  to  obtain  a  degree  for 
a  Dr.  Barnes  of  that  place.  In  a  letter  to  a  Mr.  Hill, 
one  who  wrote  in  his  favor,  I  referred  him  to  you  to 
learn  the  requisites  for  a  degree  at  this  college,  but 
instead  of  bringing  any  word  from  you,  I  received 
several  certificates  signed  by  several  persons  in  Lynn 
and  in  Boston  in  his  favor  but  none  of  them  appeared 
to  come  exactly  to  the  one  thing  necessary,  and  we 
thought  best  to  postpone  the  business  for  that  time.  I 
wish,  if  it  would  not  be  too  much  trouble,  that  you 
would  try  to  ascertain  the  situation  and  merits  of  Dr. 
Barnes,  and  let  me  know  that  I  may  know  how  to 
answer  their  importunities. 

I  wish  also  that  you  would  apply  to  Mr.  Dunn  or 

8  The  honorary  degree  of  M.D.  was  conferred  in  1810  upon  James 
Thacher,  surgeon  in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  and  author  of  "The 
American  Medical  Biography" ;  but  the  Dartmouth  catalogue  gives  no 
evidence  of  Dr.  Barnes  having  been  honored  with  a  degree. 


42  Life  and  Letters 


Mr.  Maynard,  whom  you  think  best,  and  procure  of 
them  on  my  account  several  things,  viz :  One  dozen  oil 
flasks  and  a  pound  of  each  of  the  following,  and  in  as 
great  a  degree  of  purity  as  they  can  be  obtained : 

Nitric  Acid. 
Muriatic  Acid. 
Sulphuric  Acid. 

I  will  send  by  Mr.  Pool  or  some  other  person  from 
Hanover  for  the  goods. 

I  wish  also,  that  if  they  can  be  obtained  in  Boston, 
that  you  would  procure  for  me  some  earthen  and  glass 
retorts. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"Dear  Sir: 

Mr.  Church, — the  bearer,  wishes  to  be  acquainted 
with  you.  Mr.  Church  has  been  with  me  one  year. 
You  will  find  him  a  well-informed,  honest  man.  Any 
favours  you  are  pleased  to  bestow  on  him,  will  oblige 
me. 

Respecting  the  subject  of  your  last  letter,  you  may 
inform  those  who  make  it  their  business  to  take  care 
of  my  concerns,  that  I  will  thank  them  to  exhibit  any 
demands  against  me  for  tuition  etc.     Respecting  Dr. 


of  Nathan  Smith  43 

Warren, — I  payed  him  his  money  with  interest  when 
he  called  for  it;  he  was  kind  enough  to  wait  on  me  a 
long  time,  I  suppose  because  he  thought  his  money  safe 
and  at  interest. 

I  have  a  prospect  of  procuring  a  very  handsome  set 
of  anatomical  preparations  in  season  to  use  them  the 
ensuing  course  of  lectures;  if  I  succeed,  I  shall  have  a 
better  collection  than  there  is  this  side  of  Philadelphia. 
I  have  proceeded  some  lengths  in  my  dissertation  on 
Cancer  etc. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem  and  sanguine  hopes 
of  success, 

Your  sincere  friend  and  humble  servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  November,  1808. 

To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 


"Hanover,  November  28,  1808. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  fear  I  have  not  in  my  observations  on  cancer  and 
scirrhus,  been  so  particular  in  some  parts  of  it,  as  I 
should  have  been  respecting  the  definition  of  the  word 
'Scirrhus.'  If  that  word  means  only  a  diseased  gland, 
I  am  incorrect,  or  rather  the  definition  is  defective, 
for,  from  the  cases  I  have  related,  it  appears  that  a 
Scirrhus  tumor  often  arises  in  a  part  of  the  body  where 
there  are  no  glands  of  any  kind  situated,  unless  you 
allow  the  cells  which  contain  the  fat  in  the  adipose 
membrane  that  office,   and  even  then  we  find  cases 


4.4  Life  and  Letters 


which  begin  in  the  bone  itself,  which  can  hardly  be 
considered  as  glandular. 

Another  point  perhaps  I  have  not  sufficiently  insisted 
on, — that  is,  that  when  cancer  begins  in  any  particular 
part  of  the  body  and  if  it  produces  its  likeness  in 
another  part  of  the  body  it  is  in  a  similar  part,  viz:  if 
it  begins  in  a  bone  it  will  next  appear  in  some  other 
bone,  or  if  it  begins  in  the  cellular  substance,  it  will 
next  appear  in  some  other  part  of  the  cellular  sub- 
stance &c.  This  happens  also  in  other  diseases.  In 
necrosis,  or  that  disease  of  the  bones  which  is  called 
in  this  country  'fever  sore'  the  disease  is  not  always 
confined  to  one  bone;  indeed  if  the  disease  is  extensive, 
and  especially  if  it  is  illy  treated  in  the  part  first 
attacked,  it  generally  appears  in  some  other  bone  and 
runs  the  same  course  as  in  the  first.  I  believe  we  might 
point  out  many  diseases  which  serve  to  confirm  the 
doctrine  I  have  espoused. 

I  fear  too,  that  I  have  not  explained  myself  suffi- 
ciently on  the  question  respecting  cancer  being  a  general 
or  local  disease.  I  think,  however,  it  will  appear  that 
I  consider  it  often  as  a  general  disease. 

If  you  have  time  to  make  any  alterations  in  what  I 
have  written  in  either  of  the  points  above  pointed  out, 
I  wish  you  to  do  it,  but  I  fear  you  had  it  too  late  and 
that  the  thing  will  be  found  too  imperfect  to  make  any- 
thing of  it  this  year;  if  so  let  it  lay  over,  we  can  do 
something  with  it  hereafter.  I  wrote  it  under  very 
great  disadvantages.  I  had  to  struggle  with  a  weight 
of  business  and  with  very  ill  health  for  two  months 
past;  till  within  a  very  few  days,  I  have  been  wretched 


of  Nathan  Smith  45 


and  more  than  half  the  time  in  torture  with  an  affection 
of  my  stomach,  which  I  have  concealed  as  much  as 
possible  that  I  might  not  alarm  my  class,  which  is 
very  numerous  and  respectable,  and  alarm  my  friends; 
but  I  had  almost  determined  to  yield  to  the  complaint, 
when,  on  a  sudden,  after  taking  some  pretty  powerful 
medicine  several  days  since,  my  complaint  seemed  to 
leave  me,  and  this  is  the  first  evening  which  I  have  felt 
like  myself  for  more  than  two  months. 

Dr.  Ramsey  has  commenced  his  lectures  with  much 
applause  and  I  think  him  a  very  able  anatomist.  Being 
relieved  from  anatomy  I  shall  be  able  to  do  better 
justice  to  the  other  branches  so  that  Dartmouth  will 
not  sink  this  year. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

Nathan  Smith. 

If  I  have  my  health  I  shall  be  able  to  furnish  a  paper 
for  Dr.  Boylstone  in  a  few  weeks. 

Dr.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"Hanover,  December  31,  1808. 
Dear  Sir: 

Permit  me  to  make  you  known  to  my  worthy  Friend 
and  Benefactor,  Dr.  Alexr.  Ramsey,  who  will  pass 
through  Boston  on  his  way  to  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Ram- 
sey has  just  closed  his  course  of  Lectures  in  this  College 
which  have  been  delivered  much  to  the  satisfaction  of 
all  concerned.    Dr.  Ramsey  has  begun  a  new  era  in  our 


4-6  Life  and  Letters 


College  as  relates  to  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  and 
has  put  it  in  my  power  to  do  much  more  in  that  science 
than  I  knew  how  to  do  before. 

I  wish,  if  it  can  be  consistent,  that  you  would  con- 
trive to  bring  Dr.  Ramsey  acquainted  with  Mr.  Boyl- 
stone,  who  seems  to  have  the  improvement  of  medical 
science  in  view. 

I  am  now  projecting  a  scheme  to  procure  a  building 
for  medical  purposes  at  Hanover.  I  expect  to  be  in 
Boston  in  the  course  of  next  month  and  will  then 
acquaint  you  with  all  my  plans  relating  to  the  advance- 
ment of  our  infant,  but  somewhat  thrifty,  medical 
institution.  I  am  with  sentiments  of  the  warmest 
friendship,  your  old  friend 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck, 

13  Middle  St., 
Boston, 

Massachusetts." 


"Sir: 

I  have  written  a  letter  to  Mr.  Thurston  of  New- 
bury, requesting  him  to  pay  you  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  have  directed  Mr.  Aspinwall,  who  will  hand  you 
this,  to  leave  the  letter  with  you,  and  must  request  you 
to  take  the  trouble  of  calling  on  Thurston  for  the 
money,  if  he  should  be  in  Boston,  as  I  think  probably 
he  may  be;  if  not,  be  so  kind  as  to  send  the  letter  to 
him  and  let  him  know  where  he  may  direct  to  you. 
Mr.   Aspinwall   is   a   pupil   of   mine   and  will   return 


of  Nathan  Smith  47 

directly  here;  if  you  have  any  communication  to  make 
to  me  you  may  do  so  by  him. 
I  am,  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Yours,  &c, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  March  16,  1809. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck." 


"Sir: 

I  am  continually  troubling  you  about  many  things. 
I  wish  now  that  you  would  be  so  kind  as  to  procure 
for  me,  two  tin  reflectors  and  a  tin  canister,  which  you 
will  find  described  in  Henry's  Chemistry,  in  his  chapter 
on  Caloric.  If  you  can  find  a  tinman  who  will  make 
them  for  you,  and  you  will  transmit  them  to  me  by  Mr. 
Williams  or  Mr.  E.  Woodward,  it  would  oblige  me 
very  much.  I  shall  soon  be  able  to  transmit  to  you  the 
means  of  paying  for  these  things. 

If  you  have  a  man  in  Boston  who  makes  thermom- 
eters, and  if  he  can  do  it,  I  wish  also  to  have  an  air 
thermometer  constructed  according  to  Henry's  direc- 
tions in  his  chapter  on  Caloric.  I  presume  you  can 
find  that  book  in  Boston,  and  the  workman  may  follow 
that  in  his  work. 

I  have  a  patient  here  from  Boston,  a  Mr.  Darby, 
who  has  cataracts.  I  have  operated  on  one  yesterday 
with  very  flattering  prospects  of  success. 

If  no  other  opportunity  should  offer  I  wish  you 
would  send  these  things  by  the  stage;  if  they  were 


48  Life  and  Letters 


carefully  put  up  and  sent  by  the  mail  and  the  driver 
well  charged,  I  think  they  would  come  safe  to  hand. 
I  am,  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 

To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston. 
October,  1809." 

"Dear  Sir: 

Since  writing  to  you  last,  Colonel  Graves  informed 
me  that  a  man  by  the  name  of  Howe,  a  tinman  living 
near  Boston  Stone,  will  make  the  instruments  of  tin 
which  I  wrote  for,  extremely  well,  as  he  can  give  a 
very  high  polish. 

The  reflectors  I  wrote  for,  you  will  find  described  in 
Henry  in  his  chapter  on  Caloric,  28th  page.  They 
should  be  twelve  inches  in  diameter  and  segments  of 
a  circle  or  sphere  of  nine  inches  radius. 

The  canister  you  will  find  described  on  the  next 
page ;  it  says  polished  block  tin,  six  inches  square,  and 
I  wish  also  that  you  would  send  me  a  little  tinfoil. 

We  have  commenced  our  course  of  medical  instruc- 
tion in  this  place.  I  do  not  know  how  many  students 
we  have,  as  I  have  not  yet  taken  a  catalogue,  but  have 
already  over  fifty  medical  students  and  fifty  or  more 
from  the  College,  making  in  all  a  little  more  than  an 
hundred. 

Mr.  Darby's  case  still  appears  very  promising.  He 
had  not  the  least  pain  or  soreness  in  the  eye  more  than 


of  Nathan  Smith  49 

forty-eight  hours.  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  but 
he  will  see  well. 

I  have  lately  become  acquainted  with  a  Mr.  Henry 
Darby  from  Salem,  who  has  gratuitously  offered  me 
whatever  I  may  find  in  his  garden  that  will  be  useful 
to  me.  I  am  informed  that  he  has  one  of  the  best 
gardens  in  New  England.  This  was  what  I  wanted 
very  much  and  shall  make  my  calculations  to  profit  by 
it.  I  will  visit  him  in  April  or  the  very  first  of  May 
next  and  shall  spend  my  time  there  and  at  Boston  and 
Newbury  till  the  last  of  that  month,  with  a  view  to 
possessing  myself  of  everything  pertaining  to  garden- 
ing and  agriculture  that  may  be  useful  in  this  part  of 
the  country. 

Respecting  the  glass  retort,  you  may  send  me  two 
or  three;  the  middling  size  is  the  best. 

I  am,  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Yours,  &c. 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  October  4,  1809. 
To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"Sir: 

I  have  written  you  two  letters  of  late,  and  as  Mr. 
Woodward  was  going  to  Boston,  I  thought  best  to 
write  you  again  and,  in  addition  to  what  I  wrote  for 
before,  I  want  you  to  procure  for  me,  one  quarter  of 
an  hundred  of  red  lead,  sixteen  pounds  of  mercury  and 
about  one  gallon  of  winter  strained  lamp  oil.  The 
whole  of  those  articles  will  be  too  much  to  send  by  the 


SO  Life  and  Letters 


stage,  but  if  an  opportunity  should  not  offer  for  send- 
ing them  otherwise,  I  wish  you  to  send  me  about  half 
a  dozen  oil  flasks  by  that  conveyance.  The  remainder 
of  the  dozen  I  should  like  to  have  sent  by  the  first  team 
or  when  you  send  the  other  articles  and  should  like  it 
as  well  to  have  them  sent  full  of  oil  as  they  come  to 
hand.  If  opium  is  less  than  $1.50  an  ounce  ask  the 
apothecary  to  put  up  four  ounces  for  me. 

Mr.  Woodward  will  speak  with  you  respecting  pub- 
lishing some  account  of  our  medical  affairs  in  this 
State,  especially  as  respects  the  late  grant  for  a  Medi- 
cal Building  about  which  some  of  our  people  are  mak- 
ing a  political  issue.  Mr.  Woodward  will  be  able  to 
inform  you  respecting  the  particulars. 

I  have  already  received  several  pupils  for  attending 
the  opening  course  of  lectures  and  have  heard  of  a 
greater  number  than  usual  at  this  time  who  are  calcu- 
lating to  attend.  I  feel  very  anxious  to  meet  them 
and  shall  neglect  nothing  that  I  can  do  to  render  the 
institution  reputable. 

I  am, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 

To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston. 
October,  1809." 

Pathetic  indeed  is  the  letter  of  May  14,  18 10.  For 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  we 
find  his  ardor  for  his  work  dampened  and  his  great 


of  Nathan  Smith  5/ 

discouragement  expressed.  He  had  been  willing  to 
give  his  all  to  benefit  his  fellow  men,  but  in  return  he 
found  himself  misunderstood  and  surrounded  by  such 
unpardonable  ignorance  and  persecution  as  to  make  the 
situation  almost  unbearable.  In  his  hour  of  deep  dis- 
appointment, after  a  struggle  of  over  twelve  years  to 
establish  the  Medical  School,  he  wrote  confiding  to  his 
friend  his  strong  temptation  to  give  up  the  battle. 

On  more  mature  reflection,  however,  this  uncommon 
man  put  self  aside,  his  benevolence  conquered  and  he 
persevered  again  with  his  noble  work.  Some  help  was 
accorded,  for  it  was  in  this  year  of  18 10  that  the  trus- 
tees of  Dartmouth  for  the  first  time  employed  an 
assistant  for  Dr.  Smith,  calling,  at  his  request,  his 
pupil,  Dr.  Cyrus  Perkins,  to  occupy  the  chairs  of 
Anatomy  and  Surgery,  and  this  somewhat  lightened 
the  burden  of  the  man  who  had  for  so  long  carried  on 
the  work  of  the  whole  school  alone. 

"Hanover,  May  14,  18 10. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  at  length  determined  to  leave  Hanover,  but 
at  present  have  not  concluded  on  any  certain  place  of 
future  residence.  The  political  parties  are  so  very 
jealous  of  each  other  in  this  State  and  so  near  a  balance 
that  I  have  nothing  to  expect  from  either,  as  some 
ignorant  persons  might  be  offended  at  any  grant  or 
assistance  voted  by  the  Legislature  to  promote  what 
they  term  the  'cutting  up  of  dead  bodies.'  No  one 
will  choose  to  advocate  the  measure  and  I  expect  they 
will,   if  not  deemed  too  unconstitutional,   revoke  the 


$2  Life  and  Letters 


grant  made  for  that  purpose  last  year,9  and,  if  that 
can  not  be  effected,  they  will  enact  laws  which  will 
inflict  corporal  punishment  on  any  person  who  is  con- 
cerned in  digding  ( ?)  or  dissecting.  If  the  thing 
should  take  this  course  it  will  afford  me  a  good  pretext 
for  leaving  the  College  and  State, — a  thing  which  will 
not  be  disagreeable  to  me.  The  proposal  I  made  the 
State  of  giving  land  and  the  whole  of  my  museum  and 
apparatus  was  too  much  to  give,  but  while  engaged  in 
promoting  the  school  in  this  place  I  felt  willing  to  go 
all  lengths  in  sacrificing  on  the  Esculapean  altar;  but 
the  conduct  of  people  and  parties  has  cooled  my  ardor 
for  laboring  in  my  avocation  in  this  place  and  deter- 
mined me  to  sell  my  talents  in  physic  and  surgery  to 
the  highest  bidder. 

I  shall  attend  the  medical  meeting  at  Exeter  on  the 
last  Wednesday  in  this  month  and  shall  go  from  thence 
to  Boston  thro'  Newbury  and  Salem.  I  propose  to 
spend  a  week  or  two  in  Boston  and  shall  then  have  an 
opportunity  to  converse  with  you  on  all  subjects. 

I  am  in  haste, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 

Hanover,  Monday,  May  14,  18 10. 

P.  S. — You  will  not  at  present  mention  publicly  my 
intention  to  remove  from  this  place. 

To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck." 

9  For  the  erection  of  the  medical  building. 


CHAPTER  SEVENTH 

Amid  the  difficulties  and  trials  here  described,  more 
honors  were  awaiting  Dr.  Smith. 

In  his  historical  paper,  kindly  loaned  to  the  writer 
by  Dr.  James  A.  Spalding  of  Portland,  the  following 
extract  is  found:  "Dr.  Smith  having  been  chosen  Presi- 
dent of  the  State  Society  in  1811,  was  asked  by  Dr. 
[Lyman]  Spalding,  who  was  Secretary  of  the  same 
Society,  what  he  should  announce  on  the  program 
about  the  President's  oration.  Dr.  Smith  replied: 
'You  know  what  my  habits  have  always  been,  viz.,  to 
deliver  my  sentiments  on  the  nature  and  cure  of  dis- 
eases in  as  plain  and  simple  a  style  as  possible,  and 
as  this  method  has  raised  me  to  honor,  and  my  pupils 
to  a  rank  at  least  equal  to  any  medical  man's  pupils  in 
New  England,  I  should  not  like  to  depart  from  my 
former  practice.  And  especially  as  what  I  have  to 
say  will  be  confined  to  the  theory  and  treatment  of  one 
or  two  diseases  which  can  only  interest  medical  men, 
I  should  not  like  to  call  it  an  oration,  lest  from  the 
very  name,  I  should  be  induced  to  play  the  orator.'  " 

Perhaps  the  recognition  of  his  work  and  achieve- 
ments manifested  at  this  time  in  various  quarters 
helped  in  a  measure  to  cheer  Dr.  Smith,  for,  aside 
from  his  election  to  the  presidency  of  the  State  Medi- 
cal Society,  the  London  Society,  forgetful  of  its 
diploma  presented  in  1797,  sent  a  similar  document, 
while  Harvard  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  M.D. 


54  Life  and  Letters 


These,  together  with  the  aid  given  by  Dr.  Perkins  in 
the  Medical  School,  and  the  exhilaration  due  to  sev- 
eral notable  cases  of  surgery,  give  a  new  tone  to  the 
letters  of  this  year.  Two  from  Worcester  describe 
some  very  interesting  operations.  It  is  said  that  Gov- 
ernor Lincoln  was  on  the  point  of  resigning  his  office 
on  account  of  threatened  blindness,  but  that  a  success- 
ful operation  by  Dr.  Smith  for  cataract  enabled  him 
to  see  again  and  continue  his  work  as  governor.  Dr. 
Smith's  joy  and  very  pardonable  pride  over  the  success 
of  his  surgery  at  Worcester  is  really  refreshing,  and 
surviving  friends  and  relatives  of  his  still  feel  grati- 
tude to  the  friends  and  patients  who  covered  him  with 
glory  before  he  returned  to  the  good  people  of  Han- 
over, whose  accusations  of  delay,  etc.,  he  dreaded 
might  be  awaiting  him. 

The  money  arrangements  of  that  day  seem  to  have 
been  made  principally  by  notes,  promising  payment; 
and  these  were  handed  about  from  one  to  another  for 
collection.  Dr.  Shattuck  was  evidently  Dr.  Smith's 
chief  reliance  in  place  of  a  bank,  for  almost  every 
letter  to  him  contains  some  allusion  to  notes  to  be 
collected. 

"To  George  C.  Shattuck, 

Boston. 

Worcester,  March  18,  1811. 
Dear  Sir: 

Today  I  have  couched  an  eye  for  Governor  Lincoln 
and  one  for  a  little  daughter  of  Judge  Paine  of  this 


of  Nathan  Smith  55 

place.  Both  operations  were  attended  with  the  most 
flattering  prospects  of  success.  In  the  Governor's  case 
the  operation  was  exactly  similar  in  all  its  circumstances 
to  that  I  made  on  Mrs.  Marston. 

The  little  girl's  case  was  a  very  interesting  one.  She 
had  lost  one  eye  by  a  former  operation;  her  eye  was 
very  unsteady  and  the  cataract  membranous,  but  I 
contrived  to  fix  the  eye  and  to  perform  the  operation 
in  about  two  minutes  with  the  most  heartfelt  satisfac- 
tion to  all  present.  The  little  girl  is  about  sixteen 
years  old,  a  lovely  child  and  very  sensible.  The  disease 
in  her  eye  was  born  with  her.  Her  connections  are 
numerous  and  very  respectable.  You  can  hardly  imag- 
ine a  case  in  which  the  feelings  of  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances could  be  more  interested. 

If  these  two  cases  succeed,  as  they  promise,  I  shall 
be  in  danger  of  receiving  more  flattery  and  commen- 
dation than  I  can  well  bear. 

I  wish  you  to  call  on  Mrs.  Derby  and  say  to  her  that 
I  do  not  recollect  whether  I  took  the  money  which  I 
deposited  with  her  or  not;  if  she  gave  it  to  me  it  is 
safe  in  my  trunk  at  Lancaster,  but  if  it  was  left  by 
mistake,  you  may  take  it  and  send  it  to  Mr.  Adams  by 
the  first  safe  conveyance.  One  parcel  was  for  Mr. 
Adams,  and  the  other  for  Mr.  Gilbert,  which  was 
about  14  dollars. 

I  feel  more  inclined  than  ever  to  move  to  Boston  to 
practice  my  profession.  I  am  with  sentiments  of 
esteem  your  friend  and  servant, 

Nathan  Smith." 


$6  Life  and  Letters 


"Worcester,  21st  March,  181 1. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  wrote  you  on  the  18th  inst.  and  believe  I  forgot 
to  give  you  your  title  which  you  may  be  assured  was 
not  from  the  want  of  due  respect.  Since  I  wrote  you 
I  have  performed  on  an  eye  in  Sutton;  the  case  was  a 
singular  one,  the  cataract  was  as  hard  as  calculus ;  when 
touched  with  the  needle  it  broke  with  an  audible  sound, 
like  that  of  glass,  which  was  heard  by  the  bystanders, 
and  a  portion  of  it,  about  one  third  part  of  it,  slipped 
through  the  pupil  into  the  anterior  chamber  and  fell 
below  the  pupil;  another  part  of  it  adhered  very  firmly 
to  the10  .  .  .  and  returned  with  great  violence  after 
it  was  depressed,  but  at  length  the  pupil  was  nearly  or 
quite  cleared  and  the  light  passed  into  the  eye  and 
the  man  exclaimed  that  he  could  see.  The  piece  of 
cataract  which  passed  through  into  the  anterior  cham- 
ber remains  below  the  pupil  and  I  do  not  know  that  it 
will  ever  be  absorbed  on  account  of  the  unusual  hard- 
ness, and  unless  it  should  irritate  the  iris  or  cornea 
by  resting  on  them,  I  do  not  know  that  it  will  do  any 
harm,  except  the  deformity,  as  it  appears  white 
through  the  cornea.  The  case  was  one  of  those  which 
was  from  the  birth  of  the  person,  who  was  about 
thirty  years  old. 

Governor  Lincoln  and  Miss  Paine  are  both  in  a  most 
hopeful  and  promising  way.  The  Governor  could  see 
to  count  his  fingers  in  a  very  .  .  .  light,  and  Miss  Paine 
this  morning  ...  we  uncovered  her  eye  we  held  a 

10  The  paper  of  the  letter  was  torn  where  the  words  are  left  out. 


of  Nathan  Smith  57 

bowl  of  water  before  her  and  asked  her  if  she  could 
see  it.  She  looked  at  it  and  said  she  could  see  the  bowl 
but  the  water  did  not  appear  as  she  expected  and 
should  think  there  was  something  in  it.  There  was  a 
piece  of  sponge  in  the  bottom  of  it.  I  shall  set  off 
for  Hanover  to-morrow  morning  covered  with  glory. 
I  suppose  I  shall  be  accused  of  delay  and  wrong  dis- 
position of  my  time  by  the  good  people  in  our  own 
vicinity,  but  I  thought  those  two  cases  in  Worcester 
were  of  such  importance  to  me  that  a  few  days'  time 
should  not  prevent  my  improving  the  opportunity  to 
my  best  advantage. 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 


"Dear  Sir: 

I  have  enclosed  to  you  a  note  against  Noble  Orr, 
as  you  will  see.  I  wish  you  to  deliver  the  note  to  Cap- 
tain Joshua  Blake.  You  may  leave  the  note  with 
Messrs.  Stanton  and  Spelman  with  whom  Blake  is  con- 
cerned, to  be  delivered  to  Blake  who  is  going  to 
Havana  where  Orr  is,  and  Mr.  Blake  tells  me  that  he 
knows  him  and  that  he  has  no  doubt  but  the  money 
will  be  obtained  on  the  note. 

I  left  Worcester  yesterday.  All  my  cases  were  very 
promising  then. 

I  am,  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 


$8  Life  and  Letters 


Mr.  Blake  is  going  out  soon,  of  course  wish  you  to 
attend  to  the  business  soon. 

Lancaster,  March  23,  181 1. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  have  this  day  received  your  favor  enclosing  the 
money  which  I  left  with  Mrs.  Derby  which  came  safely 
to  hand,  and  have  enclosed  to  you  Dr.  Abbot's  note 
which  you  will  perceive  had  turned  into  an  execution 
and  which  you  will  find  endorsed  satisfied.  I  will  also 
enclose  to  you  the  note  against  Dr.  Nye  and  Dr.  Foster 
as  soon  as  I  can  find  it. 

I  left  Lancaster  on  the  day  I  wrote  you  from  that 
place  and  arrived  at  Brattleborough  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing after.  We  were  obliged  to  wait  there  for  the  stage 
till  Tuesday  morning  and  to  fill  up  my  time  I  was 
engaged  to  reduce  a  dislocated  shoulder  which  had 
been  dislocated  nine  weeks.  I  succeeded  in  about  half 
an  hour.  Afterwards  on  the  same  day  a  child  was 
brought  to  me  with  cataracts  in  his  eyes. 

The  child  was  a  beautiful  and  very  sprightly  boy  of 
three  years  old.  The  question  was  whether  we  should 
operate  immediately  and  run  the  risk  of  failing  in  the 
operation  from  the  restiveness  of  the  child,  or  defer  it 
till  the  child  was  ten  or  twelve  years  old.  Considering 
how  much  the  child  must  lose  by  being  blind  so  many 
years  and  how  very  troublesome  it  would  be  for  the 
parents,  I  determined  to  attempt  an  operation  which 


of  Nathan  Smith  59 

was  effected  in  the  most  safe  and  perfect  manner  and 
I  have  no  doubt  of  final  success  in  the  case.  At 
Charlestown  I  amputated  a  finger  and  performed  for 
a  Hydrocele. 

I  arrived  at  home  last  evening,  finding  my  family  and 
friends  all  well. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  March  28,  181 1. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 


"Dear  Sir: 

I  have  enclosed  to  you  a  note  against  Dr.  N.  Whit- 
man of  Bridgewater.  The  conditions  were  that  I  was 
not  to  drive  him  to  pay,  which  promise  must  be  kept, 
but  if  he  could  probably  help  me  to  the  money  I  would 
willingly  make  him  such  a  discount  as  would  satisfy 
him. 

I  have  also  sent  you  a  note  against  Selfridge  which  I 
wish  you  to  present  to  Thos.  O.  Selfridge  and  obtain 
pay  if  possible.  I  have  also  sent  a  note  against  Dr. 
Abraham  Menan  who  lives  in  Mendheim  or  Cumber- 
land, Mass.  I  wish  you  to  send  the  note  to  some  per- 
son in  that  vicinity  to  be  collected.  For  all  these  things 
and  for  the  postage  of  letters,  &c.  I  wish  you  to  pay 
yourself  out  of  the  first  money  that  comes  into  your 
hands  which  is  my  property. 


6o  Life  and  Letters 


Perhaps  Dr.  Perkins  can  make  use  of  the  notes  to 
his  advantage.     If  so  let  him  have  them. 

Nathan  Smith. 
March  31,  1811. 
Dr.  Shattuck,  Boston. 

P.  S. — The  money  by  Mr.  Payne  came  safe  to  hand. 

I  have  a  case  of  cataract  since  I  came  home  which 
promises  success. 

I  have  also  sent  you  a  note  of  Ephraim  Wales.  I 
believe  you  had  a  note  against  him  before  which  he 
partly  paid  to  me  and  had  a  receipt  for  the  same  and 
he  has  since  paid  same  to  D —  for  me.  I  wish  you  to 
present  him  both  notes  and  let  him  bring  in  his  receipts, 
&c.  and  pay  me  the  balance.  Another  note  against 
Saml.  who  lived  in  Manchester,  which  perhaps  his 
brother  will  pay  if  pains  are  taken  to  look  it  up." 


CHAPTER  EIGHTH 

The  letter  of  April  15,  181 1,  brings  forward  a  little 
glimpse  of  the  family  of  Dr.  Smith.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  the  Ryno  he  speaks  of  with  such  pride  was 
his  second  son,  Nathan  Ryno,  then  a  lad  of  fourteen, 
who  was  destined  to  become  distinguished  in  later 
years,  as  this  history  will  show.  At  the  time  this  letter 
was  written,  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  and  his  wife,  Sarah 
Chase,  were  the  parents  of  nine  children,  four  sons  and 
five  daughters.  Solon,  the  eldest,  of  whom  we  have 
heard,  was  sixteen  years  old,  and  the  youngest  then  was 
the  little  baby,  John  Derby. 

Although  deeply  engrossed  in  his  practice  and  busi- 
ness interests,  there  never  was  a  more  devoted  husband 
and  father  than  Dr.  Smith.  His  daughter-in-law,  who 
knew  him  intimately,  told  the  writer  that  he  was  the 
tenderest  and  gentlest  man  in  his  home  that  she  ever 
saw. 

This  letter  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  col- 
lection, for,  after  telling  of  his  children,  Dr.  Smith 
gives  to  Dr.  Shattuck,  in  his  own  handwriting,  a  full 
account  of  the  origin  of  the  Dartmouth  Medical  School. 

"Hanover,  April  15,  1 8 1 1 . 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  received  your  favor  by  Dr.  Perkins  and  am 
much  obligated  to  you  for  your  attention  to  my  business 
respecting  the  note  against  Selfridge.    I  think  with  you 


62  Life  and  Letters 


that  it  will  be  improper  to  urge  his  brother  to  pay  it. 
I  shall  consider  it  lost. 

You  will  recollect  that  Sylvester  wrote  you  that  Ryno 
had  gone  all  amiss,  and  I  really  supposed  he  had  been 
idle  during  my  absence  and  intended  to  have  inquired 
into  his  conduct  in  a  few  days  after  my  return.  It  hap- 
pened, however,  that  the  school  he  attended  was  to  be 
examined  a  few  days  after  my  return.  I  was  not  pres- 
ent at  the  examination,  being  called  off  on  urgent  busi- 
ness, but  Professor  Shurtleff11  attended  and,  without 
soliciting,  told  me  that  Ryno  Smith  passed  the  best 
examination  on  the  Principles  of  Arithmetic  he  ever 
witnessed  in  any  person  of  his  age.  Ryno  began  the 
study  of  Arithmetic  in  January  last  and  was  examined 
about  the  last  day  of  March,  so  that  we  may  form  some 
judgment  how  he  has  spent  his  time.  So  much  for  the 
boy  who  goes  all  amiss. 

I  know  not  how  it  happened  but  so  it  is,  that  a  certain 
kind  of  owl-like  gravity  in  men  gives  them  great  credit 
for  wisdom,  and  stupidity  and  aversion  to  play  in  a  boy 
secures  him  the  reputation  of  a  good  scholar. 

Mr.  Perry,  who  taught  Ryno  last  winter,  is  now  a 
member  of  my  family  and  has  the  charge  of  the  educa- 
tion of  my  children.  I  have  great  reason  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  progress  of  Solon,  made  during  my 
absence,  and  the  little  girls  have  exceeded  my  most 
sanguine  hopes  in  their  improvement. 

Respecting  the  origin  of  the  Medical  School  in  this 

"Roswell  Shurtleff,  A.B.  1799  Dartmouth,  tutor,  professor,  college 
pastor  and  librarian,  filling  at  Dartmouth  one  or  more  of  these 
positions  at  a  time  between  1800  and  1861. 


of  Nathan  Smith  63 


place :  I  gave  the  first  course  of  medical  lectures  in  1797 
beginning  in  November, — was  made  Professor  in  1798. 
Dr.  Lyman  Spalding  gave  a  course  of  chemical  lectures 
in  1 801  or  2, — he  can  inform  you  the  exact  date,  and 
whether  he  gave  one  or  two  courses.  I  do  not  know. 
Dr.  Ramsey  gave  a  course  on  Anatomy  in  1808.  The 
State  Legislature  granted  to  me  600  dollars  for  chemi- 
cal apparatus  in  1803  and  in  1809  granted  345°  dollars 
for  a  Medical  Building,  which  is  now  begun  and  pro- 
gressing and  will  be  finished  by  the  first  of  October.  I 
obtained  both  grants  by  my  petitions  alone. 

N.  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 
"Received  April  20,  1811." 

"Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  16th  inst.  I  received  yesterday.  The 
package  from  London  contained  a  diploma  from  the 
London  Medical  Society  with  several  pamphlets  relat- 
ing to  the  doings  of  the  Humane  Society  in  London. 

I  perceive  that  the  folks  in  London  are  forgetful 
as  we  are  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  I  had  a  diploma 
from  the  same  Society  in  the  year  1797,  and  in  a  letter 
from  Dr.  Lettsom  he  remarked  on  the  properties  of 
the  Bloodroot,  a  specimen  of  which  I  sent  him,  that 
the  astringent  qualities  of  it  rendered  its  effect  in 
dysenteric  cases  doubtful.  Now  I  never  mentioned  in 
my  letter  that  it  was  astringent,  neither  do  I  think  that 
it  is  so,  or  at  least  its  astringent  properties  are  but 
trifling  and  probably  constitute  no  part  of  its  medical 


64  Life  and  Letters 


virtue,  besides,  I  did  not  mention  it  as  a  remedy  in 
dysentery.  The  diseases  I  mentioned  in  my  letter  in 
which  it  had  been  useful  were:  acute  rheumatism, 
bleeding  from  the  lungs,  coughs,  and  epileptic  fits.  I 
conclude  the  good  old  man  wrote  long  after  receiving 
my  letter. 

Respecting  your  application  in  favor  of  young  Park- 
man;12 — Dr.  Perkins  and  myself  shall  be  happy  to 
recommend  him  to  our  Hanover  Board  of  Trustees  for 
a  degree,  and  from  my  own  knowledge  of  his  perse- 
verance in  studies  and  the  excellence  of  his  mind,  I  shall 
consider  it  as  a  just  tribute  to  his  superior  merit. 

I  intended  to  have  spent  this  winter  in  Boston,  but  in 
reviewing  my  affairs  I  found  them  such  as  required  my 
presence  at  home  and  all  my  exertions  to  bring  them 
into  a  better  form.  I  have  made  considerable  progress 
in  settlement  of  my  old  affairs  and  hope  in  the  course  of 
the  year  to  see  myself  in  better  circumstances.  Our 
business  has  been  very  good  this  winter  and  we  have  no 
reason  to  be  dissatisfied  with  our  income  excepting  that 
the  usual  delay  in  payments  in  this  district  gives  us  some 
trouble  at  present. 

I  shall  spend  a  part  of  the  summer  in  Boston.    I  am 

12  Presumably  George  Parkman,  then  twenty-one  years  of  age,  Har- 
vard A.M.  1809.  Evidently  a  young  man  of  great  promise,  for 
although  Dartmouth  did  not  give  him  a  degree,  he  had  that  recognition 
from  Aberdeen  in  1813.  He  became  one  of  Boston's  noted  physicians 
and  gave  the  land  upon  which  the  Harvard  Medical  School  was  built. 
The  Parkman  Professorship  of  Anatomy  and  Surgery  was  established 
in  1847  and  named  in  his  honor,  and  this  chair  was  occupied  by  Dr. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  1847-1882—1894  Emeritus.  Dr.  Parkman  was 
murdered  in  the  College  laboratory. 


of  Nathan  Smith  65 

about  to  petition  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  at 
their  next  session  for  an  additional  grant  to  cover  one 
thousand  dollars  which  I  expended  in  building  the 
Medical  House  over  and  above  what  the  State  granted 
for  that  purpose  and  for  another  thousand  to  begin  a 
botanical  garden.  The  Russian  stove  I  have  heard  of 
and  calculate  when  I  come  to  Boston  to  procure  plans 
for  building  them  in  my  house. 

Yours  etc. 

Nathan  Smith. 

Please  to  give  my  own  and  Mrs.  Smith's  best  respects 
to  Mrs.  Shattuck,  Mrs.  Davis,  and  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Derby. 

Hanover,  April. 
To  George  C.  Shattuck,  M.D.,  Boston." 

It  is  thought  best  to  publish  all  of  the  letters  of  Dr. 
Smith  to  Dr.  Shattuck  in  full,  as  they  give  better 
evidence  of  the  vast  extent  of  his  professional  work 
than  can  be  procured  in  any  other  way.  They  tell  not 
only  of  his  interest  in  the  Medical  School,  but  of  his 
medical  and  surgical  practice  throughout  New  England, 
as  he  described  it:  "bandied  about  from  one  part  of 
the  country  to  the  other."  The  last  week  of  April  of 
181 1,  he  was  eighty  miles  above  Hanover  with  an  ill 
patient;  a  few  days  later  at  Bath  attending  spotted 
fever;  at  Exeter,  the  last  of  May,  to  attend  the  meeting 
of  the  Legislature  in  the  interest  of  the  Medical 
School,  going  thence  to  Concord,  where  he  operated 


66  Life  and  Letters 


successfully  on  Mr.  Cushman  for  artificial  joint.  In 
September  he  writes  from  Worcester  of  having  had  six 
operations  for  cataract  in  various  localities  during  two 
weeks,  besides  an  operation  for  the  same  thing  on 
Judge  Lincoln;  and  in  the  same  letter  he  expresses  the 
intention  of  visiting  Boston  within  a  few  days. 

Under  date  of  June  26,  18 12,  Dr.  Smith  describes 
his  tour  of  three  weeks,  spent  in  again  attending  the 
meeting  of  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire,  as  well 
as  in  ministering  to  the  sick,  blind  and  halt  about  the 
Merrimack,  and  performing  several  operations  among 
them;  also  of  the  prospect  of  visiting  Boston  again  in 
July.  Evidently  after  leaving  Boston  under  pressure 
and  hurry  of  business,  he  writes,  under  date  of  July  1 1, 
of  hoping  to  be  there  in  September,  and  that  on  his  way 
home  to  Hanover  he  had  extirpated  a  tumor  in  Truro 
and  another  in  Charlestown,  and  on  his  arrival  per- 
formed a  very  serious  operation  on  the  thigh  of  a  lad 
for  necrosis,  and  adds,  "the  cure  is  certain."  Within  a 
week  he  is  to  operate  in  Concord,  and  next  in  Walpole 
for  an  exostosis  of  the  thigh  bone. 

It  may  be  noticed  that  the  majority  of  those  distant 
visits  for  professional  work  were  made  during  the 
vacation  months  of  the  Dartmouth  Medical  School. 
During  the  lecture  terms  there  is  not  a  doubt  but  that 
Dr.  Smith's  conscientious  and  earnest  endeavors  were 
given  to  the  instruction  of  his  classes. 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  have  fallen  to  my  old  habits  and  am  bandied  about 
from  one  part  of  the  country  to  the  other.    Last  week 


of  Nathan  Smith  67 

I  was  in  the  upper  Coos,  eighty  miles  above  Hanover 
and  am  now  at  Weathersfield  in  the  service  of  Mr. 
Jarvis,  late  Consul  at  Lisbon  who  has  been  dangerously 
sick  but  is,  I  think,  to-day  out  of  danger. 

We  have  broke  ground  for  the  foundation  of  the 
Medical  House  and  every  part  of  the  business  towards 
the  completion  of  the  building  is  in  happy  progress. 

The  spotted  fever  is  still  ravaging  various  parts  of 
this  part  of  our  country.  I  saw  four  persons  sick  of 
that  terrible  disease  at  Bath  a  few  days  since.  Two 
children,  who  were  taken  the  morning  of  the  same  day 
I  was  there,  died  before  noon.  Perhaps  you  may  have 
seen  some  of  the  newspaper  publications  from  several 
of  the  medical  gentlemen  in  this  quarter,  and,  if  so,  you 
may  remember  the  old  proverb,  viz. :  'In  trouble  every 
fool  pretends  to  advise  and  if  more  happy  thinks  him- 
self more  wise.'  The  object  of  these  publications 
seems  to  be  principally  to  puff  their  authors  and  to 
brag  of  what  they  have  done,  and  two  of  those  teachers 
of  the  public  have  fallen  out  and  have  accused  each 
other  of  telling  more  than  was  true  in  their  own  favor, 
and  the  public,  I  believe,  are  generally  agreed  that  they 
are  both  correct  in  that  particular. 

I  wish  you  to  see  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Derby,  and  after 
remembering  me  to  them  in  the  most  affectionate 
manner,  inquire  of  them  whether  I  am  to  expect  a  visit 
from  them,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  and  Miss  Davis  in  June 
next.  I  shall  be  at  Exeter  on  the  last  Wednesday  in 
May  and  shall  be  home  in  about  four  days  from  that 
day;  should  like  to  receive  them  the  beginning  of  the 
second  week  in  June. 


68  Life  and  Letters 


You  may  inform  my  friends  that  I  shall  be  in  Boston 
the  latter  part  of  June. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  May  2,  181 1. 

Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"Hanover,  May  4,  181 1. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  this  moment  rec'd  your  letter  by  the  last  mail 
and  you  may  rest  assured  that  I  have  not  for  many  days 
read  a  letter  that  gave  me  half  so  much  joy.  I  think 
you  have  taken  the  wisest  measures  to  effect  the  best 
purposes  and  have  no  doubt  but  you  are  candidate  for 
as  much  happiness  as  falls  to  the  lot  of  human  nature. 
You  must  however  remember  that  it  is  not  always  in 
the  power  of  man  to  secure  his  own  happiness,  tho',  I 
think  yours  looks  as  well  in  prospect  as  that  of  any  man 
within  my  knowledge. 

I  wrote  you  last  week  by  Mrs.  S.  Jarvis  of  Clare- 
mont  but  possibly  you  may  not  receive  the  letter  so  soon 
as  this  will  reach  you.  In  that  letter  I  requested  you 
after  presenting  my  best  respects  to  Mr.  &  Mrs.  Derby, 
Mrs.  Davis,  Miss  Eliza  D.  &  Miss  E.  Williams,  to 
inquire  of  them  when  I  might  expect  to  see  them  at  my 
house.  I  shall  be  at  Exeter  on  the  last  Wednesday  in 
May  next  &  shall  return  the  week  after,  so  that  it 
would  be  convenient  for  me  to  receive  them  about  the 
2nd  week  in  June.     I  have  rec'd  a  letter  from  Dr. 


of  Nathan  Smith  6g 

Whitman  informing  me  that  Mr.  Peabody  had  called 
on  him  to  pay  the  note  &c.  I  thought  I  expressed  to 
you  in  the  letter  inclosing  the  notes  that  Whitman  was 
not  to  be  called  on  for  the  note  unless  it  was  convenient 
for  him  to  pay,  but  it  may  be  I  neglected  it.  As  Whit- 
man cannot  pay  till  fall  I  wish  you  would  speak  to  Mr. 
Peabody  to  give  you  the  note  &  wish  you  to  keep  it  till 
Dr.  W.  can  pay  it  &c.  I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 
Yours  in  great  haste, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 


"Dear  Sir: 

I  should  like  to  know  to  a  day  when  I  may  expect 
Mr.  Derby  and  company  at  my  house.  You  will  bear 
in  mind  that  I  must  be  at  Exeter  on  the  last  Wednesday 
of  this  month  which  will  be  next  week,  and  if  Mr. 
Derby  should  not  be  here  till  the  Monday  or  Saturday 
after  our  elections,  which  will  be  on  the  first  Wednes- 
day in  June,  I  should  probably  stay  and  see  our  elec- 
tions at  Concord;  but  if  Mr.  Derby  has  made  his 
arrangements  otherwise  you  will  not  communicate  that 
wish  of  mine  to  him  as  it  is  a  matter  of  great 
indifference  to  me  whether  I  am  at  elections  or  not. 

I  have  had  two  successful  operations  for  cataract, — 
both  old  men,  one  72  and  the  other  84, — the  last  week. 
I  have  no  doubt  of  the  success  of  both  cases.  The  man 
aged  72,  was  one  of  old  Bob  Rogers'  Rangers  and  has 
served  through  the  whole  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
All  I  expect  in  either  case  is  the  pleasure  of  doing  good, 


yo  Life  and  Letters 


as  they  are  both  extremely  poor.  Mr.  Cushman  of 
Concord,  who  suffered  the  operation  for  an  artificial 
joint,  has  recovered  so  far  as  to  walk  with  crutches. 
The  thigh  bone  has  united  firmly;  it  is  a  little  shortened. 
This  patient,  from  want  of  proper  attention,  has  suf- 
fered a  confinement  at  least  twice  as  long  as  was  neces- 
sary and  the  limb  is  less  perfect  than  it  might  have  been 
in  a  similar  case  so  situated  that  I  could  attend  it.  I 
am  certain  I  could  cure  it  in  half  the  time  and  have  the 
limb  the  full  length.  I  consider  the  experiment  a 
sufficient  warranty  for  such  observation. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem  and  sincere  friend- 
ship, 

Your  humble  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 

Hanover,  Sunday,  May  19,  181 1. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck." 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  left  home  a  fortnight  since  &  since  that  time  have 
had  six  operations  of  couching  besides  an  operation  on 
Judge  Lincoln  which  I  performed  yesterday;  the 
cataract  has  risen  but  the  eye  is  not  injured  &  I  shall  at 
length  make  his  sight  perfect.  I  regret  very  much  that 
I  was  not  able  to  be  at  Boston  on  the  day  you  mentioned 
in  your  last  letter  to  me,  but  my  business  seemed  to 
require  my  delay  &  I  assure  you  that  you  &  Miss  Davis 
have  my  warmest  wishes  &  most  fervent  prayers  for 
your  mutual  happiness. 


of  Nathan  Smith  7/ 

I   shall   probably  be   in   Boston   on  the   day   after 
tomorrow.     I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Yours  sincerely 

Nathan  Smith. 
Worcester,  September  25,  181 1. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck." 


"Hanover,  December  20. 
Dear  Sir: 

Immediately  on  receiving  yours  by  Dr.  Twitchel  I 
wrote  to  Bradley  &  Gardner  &  by  the  last  mail  they 
write  that  Dr.  Waterhouse  has  obtained  the  appoint- 
ment which  I  was  soliciting  for  you.  ...  I  have  closed 
my  course  of  public  instructions  for  the  present  year 
perhaps  with  as  much  credit  as  I  have  done  heretofore. 
We  had  a  very  good  course  on  Anatomy,  much  better 
than  at  any  former  time.  We  were  very  fortunate  in 
obtaining  subjects  and  have  dissected  three  who  were 
all  pretty  good;  the  one  brought  by  T.  was  excellent. 

I  have  lately  added  52  volumes  to  my  library  of 
historical  works,  viz:  Mavors'  General  History,  26 
vols.,  Mavors'  Voyages,  19  vols.,  and  Hume's  England, 
8  vols.  As  my  time  is  so  taken  up  that  I  cannot  read 
such  lengthy  works,  have  set  two  pupils  to  reading  in 
course  and  have  requested  them  to  fix  a  kind  of  index 
to  everything  relating  to  medicine  or  medical  men  to  be 
found  in  the  several  works,  so  that  I  hope  to  reap  some 
advantage  from  the  books  tho'  they  are  not  medical. 

In  your  last,  you  mentioned  a  gentleman  who  is  going 


J2  Life  and  Letters 

to  England  and  who  will  purchase  any  books  I  wish  for. 
I  do  not  know  whether  he  is  a  bookseller  or  whether 
he  must  have  the  money  to  purchase  with  before  he 
goes;  if  he  is  a  dealer  in  books  and  will  purchase  books 
which  are  wanted  and  will  wait  for  his  money  till  the 
books  are  delivered  at  Boston,  should  be  glad  to  pur- 
chase to  a  considerable  amount,  but  the  dearth  of 
money13  here  is  so  great  that  I  cannot  immediately  send 
enough  to  make  it  any  object,  not  having  as  yet  made 
any  collections  the  present  year.  I  will,  however,  make 
out  a  list  of  books  which  I  should  be  glad  to  purchase 
and  for  which  I  would  pay  the  money  as  soon  as  the 
books  could  be  procured,  and  perhaps  the  man  you 
mention  or  some  importer  of  books  will  be  willing  to 
order  out  the  books. 

Bell's  Anatomical  Tables  and  Dissections. 

Sayer  Walker's  Observations  on  the  Constitutions  of 
Women  and  Diseases  to  Which  They  are  Liable. 

Pemberton's  On  Diseases  of  the  Abdominal  Viscera. 

Stone  On  Diseases  of  the  Stomach. 

Everard  Homes'  Observations  on  Cancer. 

I  wish  you  to  send  me  one  canister  of  the  best  battle 
gunpowder, 

Yours  sincerely,  &c. 

N.  Smith. 

To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston. 

Wish  you  to  put  the  formula  in  the  mail  if  you  have 
no  opportunity  to  send  it  immediately  (  ?) ." 

13  Perhaps  due  to  the  War  of  1812. 


of  Nathan  Smith  73 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  have  only  a  moment  to  write  you  and  can  only 
inform  you  that  we  are  all  well  at  present.  I  have  just 
returned  from  a  tour  of  about  three  weeks  spent  in 
attending  our  Legislature  and  attending  on  the  sick, 
blind  and  halt  on  and  about  the  Merrimack.  Our  Legis- 
lature did  not  see  fit  to  allow  me  the  1,217  dollars  I 
expended  in  building  the  medical  school  at  Hanover 
over  and  above  the  grant  made  by  the  Legislature  for 
that  purpose,  but  I  have  no  doubt  but  they  will  at  their 
next  meeting. 

I  have  among  several  operations  performed  on  my 
tour,  worked  twice  with  success  and  have  a  patient  now 
waiting  for  the  operation  to  be  performed  this  morning. 

I  shall  probably  be  in  Boston  next  month;  till  then 
please  remain  assured  of  my  very  great  esteem  and 
sincere  friendship.  Also  please  to  give  my  respects  to 
Mrs.  Shattuck,  Mrs.  Davis  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Derby. 

Yours,  &c. 

Nathan  Smith. 
Hanover,  June  26,  181 2. 
To  George  C.  Shattuck,  M.  D.,  Boston." 

"Hanover,  July  11,  18 12. 
Dear  Sir: 

.  .  .  I  wish  you  to  tell  Mr.  Maynard  that  I 
intended  to  have  seen  him  before  I  left  town  &  have 
spoken  with  him  on  the  subject  of  what  I  owed  him, 
but   the   hurry   of   business   prevented   it.      You   may 


J4  Life  and  Letters 


inform  him  that  I  shall  be  at  Boston  early  in  Septem- 
ber next  &  will  then  settle  with  him.  On  my  way  home 
I  extirpated  a  tumor  in  Truro,  another  in  Charles- 
town,  &  since  I  arrived  I  have  removed  a  large 
sequestra  from  the  thigh  bone  of  a  lad.  The  dead 
bone  is  about  four  inches  in  length  of  the  whole  femur. 
I  divided  the  flesh,  introduced  a  trephine,  sawed  off 
the  dead  portion  of  bone  in  the  middle,  &  drew  out 
first  one  end  &  then  the  other.  The  cure  is  certain. 
I  am  going  this  week  to  perform  an  operation  in 
N.  Concord,  where  an  artificial  joint  has  been  made 
in  the  thigh  bone,  &  next  week  in  Walpole  for  an 
exostosis  on  the  thigh  bone. 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck." 


CHAPTER  NINTH 

The  accompanying  photograph  will  give  some  idea 
of  the  form  of  the  old  medical  building  for  which  Dr. 
Smith  obtained  the  grant  and  gave  his  land,  anatomical 
museum,  etc.,  and  which  was  the  first  independent  home 
of  the  Dartmouth  Medical  School.  It  was  built  of 
brick  and  was  probably  completed  in  the  autumn  of 
1811.  In  the  two-story  centre  are  two  good  lecture 
halls  and  in  the  two  three-story  wings  are  smaller 
rooms  for  library,  laboratory,  museums,  etc.  The 
lighting  of  the  lecture  hall  on  the  first  floor,  by  large 
windows  on  opposite  sides  of  the  room,  and  the 
acoustic  properties  are  exceedingly  good.  The  seats 
for  students  are  well  arranged;  they  are  placed  in  long 
rows  slightly  elevated  one  above  another  all  the  way 
up  in  front  of  the  lecturer,  and  on  the  wall  behind  his 
position  is  hung  a  large  blackboard. 

The  very  primitive  arrangements  of  the  hall  consist 
of  a  trap .  door  beneath  where  the  lecturer  stands, 
which  opens  into  an  underground  place,  where  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  subjects  were  kept  and  lifted  up  for 
anatomical  study.  Running  almost  all  the  way  across 
the  room  in  front  of  the  lecturer  is  a  broad  counter- 
like table  somewhat  rounded  at  the  corners,  a  part  of 
which  must  have  served  for  anatomical  demonstra- 
tions; about  one  third  of  it  at  the  other  end,  being 
detached  and  on  small  wheels  fitted  to  a  little  track, 
could  be  rolled  through  a  side  door  into  an  adjoining 


y6  Life  and  Letters 


room  where  patients  prepared  for  surgical  operations 
were  placed  upon  the  table  and  rolled  back  into  the 
lecture  hall  ready  for  the  surgeon. 

In  those  old  days  no  aseptic  treatment  was  practiced, 
nor  had  antiseptics  been  discovered,  for  the  world  was 
in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  presence  of  lurking  germs, 
now  recognized  as  arch  enemies  to  the  health  of  the 
human  race.  But,  although  germs  were  undiscovered, 
pain  was  fully  understood  and  believed  in,  and — sad  to 
say — no  anesthetics  were  known  by  which  to  deaden 
the  sufferings  of  patients,  or  the  sympathies  of  the  ten- 
der-hearted surgeon. 

An  early  pupil  of  Dr.  Smith  at  New  Haven,  Dr. 
Abraham  T.  Lowe  of  Boston,  who,  when  a  student, 
accompanied  him  to  a  distant  town  to  assist  him  in 
performing  a  capital  operation,  described  to  Dr.  Hub- 
bard, as  follows,  Dr.  Smith's  deep  sympathy  for  the 
patient  on  this  occasion: 

"It  was  a  chilly  morning,  as  we  sat  by  the  fire,  and 
the  doctor  looked  at  the  patient  at  the  farther  end  of 
the  room.  The  lad  was  emaciated  and  trembling. 
Dr.  Smith  was  visibly  affected,  his  eyes  dropped  tears 
and  his  hand  trembled  as  he  whispered  to  me :  'I  shall 
not  do  what  they  expect.  It  is  a  cruel  business,  and  I 
will  perform  a  less  severe  operation,  in  the  hope  it 
may  have  the  same  effect.'  On  examination  it  became 
apparent  that  the  severer  operation  (amputation  of 
the  thigh)  could  not  be  avoided.  Before  we  returned 
to  the  room,  he  said  to  the  attending  physician,  'Hall, 
you  know  all  about  this  boy's  sufferings;  at  the  moment 
we  begin,  bend  over  and  across  the  bed  to  hide  us  from 


of  Nathan  Smith  77 

his  sight,  and  do  your  best  to  comfort  him,'  the  tears 
still  falling  from  his  eyes.  At  once  he  became  calm, 
the  tremor  left  him,  and  in  less  time  than  while  I  write 
this  period,  the  operation  was  completed,  and  the 
patient  recovered." 

Dr.  Lowe  adds :  "Dr.  Smith  was  a  great  and  good 
man.  He  never  seemed  to  toil  for  professional  fame, 
but  to  do  good  to  his  fellow  men."  The  old  hall  of  the 
Medical  Building  at  Dartmouth  was  the  scene  of  many 
minor  operations,  and  when  sufferers  were  brought 
from  distant  places  to  be  relieved  from  complaints 
and  injuries,  after  the  wheeling  back  into  the  little 
dressing  room  of  the  operating  hall,  they  were  often 
subjected  to  the  further  ordeal  of  being  transported 
to  their  homes  on  mattresses  in  wagons.  But,  in  spite 
of  the  want  of  later  day  science,  the  majority  of 
patients  recovered  and  lived  long  lives. 

The  hall  of  the  old  Medical  Building  is  light  and 
airy,  and  some  of  the  lectures  are  still  given  there.  Dr. 
Gilman  D.  Frost,  the  present  Professor  of  Anatomy, 
who  kindly  showed  the  writer  through  the  building, 
values  highly  its  association  with  the  man  who  first 
filled  the  chair,  or — as  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
expresses  it — who  filled  a  "Settee  of  Professor- 
ships." Very  recently  Dr.  Abraham  Flexner  has  added 
his  tribute,  speaking  of  him  as  the  man  who  "was  its 
entire  faculty,  and  a  very  able  faculty  at  that." 

While  still  retaining  the  use  of  what  is  so  good  of 
the  old  building,  Dartmouth  now  possesses  excellent 
modern  conveniences  for  its  medical  school.  On  one 
side  of  the  structure  of  181 1,  there  is  an  up-to-date 


y8  Life  and  Letters 


building  for  dissecting  and  anatomical  study,  and  on 
the  other  side  of  it  has  been  erected  the  splendid 
"Nathan  Smith  Laboratory,"  for  chemical  and  patho- 
logical research.  Not  far  away  from  this  group  of 
buildings  is  the  beautiful  "Mary  Hitchcock  Hospital," 
which,  although  not  very  large,  is  fitted  up  with  every 
comfort  for  the  sick,  and  also  with  operating  rooms, 
whose  spotless  and  lovely  white  marble  walls  and  tiled 
floors  are  in  every  way  sanitary.  Indeed,  all  the 
arrangements  of  the  hospital  show  it  to  be  as  thor- 
oughly equipped  for  surgery  as  any  hospital  in  the 
world. 

This  venerable  Medical  School  of  Dartmouth, — the 
fourth  institution  of  the  kind  in  the  United  States, — 
has  created  a  record  worthy  of  all  honor  during  the 
century  and  more  of  its  existence;  from  its  lecture 
halls  have  gone  forth  not  only  well-taught  physicians 
to  do  work  in  distant  country  neighborhoods,  but 
numbered  among  its  alumni  are  to  be  found  the  names 
of  some  of  the  most  useful  and  distinguished  physicians 
and  teachers  throughout  the  country;  men  who  have 
held  chairs  in  other  colleges  and,  in  their  turn,  been  the 
instructors  of  scientists  and  discoverers  who  have  built 
upon  their  foundation. 

One  of  the  most  carefully  kept  of  Dr.  Smith's  old 
ledgers  contains  only  the  notes  of  his  lectures  on 
chemistry  and,  as  he  was  never  a  regularly  appointed 
professor  of  chemistry  after  leaving  Hanover,  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  these  lectures  were  delivered 
in  the  Dartmouth  Medical  School  before  the  year  1813, 
when  he  left  for  New  Haven.    All  of  the  lectures  show 


of  Nathan  Smith  79 

a  wonderful  amount  of  study,  and  also  of  original 
thought,  and  one  of  them  ends  with  the  following 
remarkable  prophecy. 

Extract  from  a  Lecture  on  Chemistry 

by  Nathan  Smith,  delivered  at  Hanover — probably 

before  1813. 

"Respecting  what  the  effect  of  chemistry  on  medi- 
cine may  be  hereafter  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  conjectured 
that  it  will  be  able  to  discover  the  nature  and  compo- 
sition of  inanimate  animal  matter,  that  it  will  precisely 
discover  and  determine  the  chemical  effects  which  take 
place  in  living  animals,  that  it  will  also  discover  what 
takes  place  in  organic  injuries,  and  in  what  diseases 
consist,  that  it  will  discover  the  means  of  preventing 
such  injury  at  its  commencement  and  of  remedying 
several  of  them  when  produced,  and  that  it  will  sim- 
plify materia  medica.  That  it  will  effect  all  this  is  by 
some  fondly  hoped,  in  the  first  place :  by  pursuing  with 
ardor  the  modern  analysis, — so  different  from  the 
ancient;  by  making  physiological  experiments  such  as 
those  of  Spallanzani  on  digestion,  of  Lavoisier  on 
respiration  and  Vauquelin  on  excrements ;  by  operating, 
in  an  Hospital  consecrated  to  experiments  of  that  kind, 
on  the  liquids  and  organs  altered  by  disease  before 
and  after  death;  by  experiments  tried  with  prudence 
on  diseases  after  the  notions  formed  from  preceding 
data;  by  causing  only  well  known  remedies  to  be  pre- 
scribed; by  discarding  all  inert  substances;  by  forbid- 
ding such  as  are  poisonous ;  by  reducing  the  number  of 


8o  Life  and  Letters 


medicines  to  such  as  possess  real  activity,  and  lastly, 
by  rendering  the  formulae  of  medicine  more  exact." 

In  the  hundred  years  which  have  passed  since  these 
words  were  uttered,  what  of  all  that  Dr.  Smith  fore- 
told has  not  been  accomplished  by  chemistry?  How 
fitting  and  poetically  appropriate  that,  almost  upon  the 
very  spot  where  his  words  were  spoken,  a  beautiful 
building  has  recently  been  erected,  bearing  in  his  honor 
the  name  of  "The  Nathan  Smith  Laboratory,"  where, 
as  he  fondly  hoped,  in  a  "Hospital  consecrated  to 
experiments  of  that  kind,"  scientists  of  to-day  are  pur- 
suing with  ardor  the  modern  analysis,  and,  by  chemical 
and  pathological  research,  carrying  on  some  of  the 
work  which  is  giving  to  the  world  discoveries  and 
benefits  far  exceeding  his  most  loving  and  most 
ambitious  dreams. 

In  the  year  1812,  it  was  decided  to  establish  a  medi- 
cal department  at  Yale  College  and,  knowing  of  Dr. 
Smith's  rare  ability  as  an  organizer  and  teacher,  and 
of  his  great  skill  in  the  practice  of  medicine  and  sur- 
gery, the  trustees  selected  him  as  the  man  best  fitted 
to  aid  in  the  enterprise  and  invited  him  to  become 
Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic,  Sur- 
gery and  Obstetrics  in  the  new  institution. 

It  is  easy  to  gather  from  one  or  two  of  the  fore- 
going letters — especially  the  one  of  May  14,  18 10 — 
that  Dr.  Smith  had  found  thickening  clouds  of  diffi- 
culty closing  in  around  his  work  at  Hanover. 

Although  his  classes  in  the  Medical  Department  of 
Dartmouth  were  steadily  increasing  in  numbers  and 
were  filled  by  intelligent  young  men  attracted  to  the 


- 
The  Nathan  Smith  Laboratory  at  Dartmouth 


of  Nathan  Smith 


school  by  his  rare  ability  as  a  teacher,  he  began  to 
feel  as  though  he  were  held  in  the  strong  grip  of 
circumstances  impossible  any  longer  to  contend 
against.  The  poverty  of  the  state  and  political 
jealousies  which  separated  men  into  parties  were 
already  threatening  the  crisis  which  a  little  later  came 
to  the  Dartmouth  School  and  which  brought  forth  the 
noted  and  pathetic  appeal  from  Daniel  Webster  before 
the  Federal  Supreme  Court,  when  he  is  said  to  have 
shed  tears,  while  pleading,  in  one  of  his  eloquent 
speeches,  for  the  life  of  his  Alma  Mater. 

To  question  Dr.  Smith's  patience  or  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  the  child  of  his  fostering  care,  would  be  an 
injustice  that  no  one  could  be  guilty  of  after  reading 
of  all  he  had  endured  to  bring  it  into  existence;  but, 
perhaps,  in  his  wisdom  and  keen  foresight,  he  may 
have  seen  that  his  future  usefulness  there  was  being 
made  impossible,  and  that  some  new  element  was 
needed  to  complete  the  work. 

In  what  way  he  was  influenced  to  leave  Dartmouth 
no  one  can  tell.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  Higher 
Power  which  orders  the  destinies  of  men  had  work  in 
other  fields  awaiting  the  services  of  the  master  hand 
which  had  accomplished  so  much  already. 

President  Wheelock  and  the  trustees  of  Dartmouth 
College  regretted  exceedingly  the  parting  with  Dr. 
Smith  and  were  as  slow  in  accepting  his  resignation  as 
they  had  been  in  accepting  his  proposition  to  establish 
the  Medical  School,  for  their  action  was  delayed  until 
1814. 

Two  years  later,  in  1816,  Dr.  Smith  returned  by 


82  Life  and  Letters 


invitation  to  give  another  course  of  lectures  which  was 
attended  by  sixty-six  medical  and  forty-four  college  stu- 
dents.14 He  was  at  this  time  reelected  to  a  professor- 
ship, but  declined  to  accept  and  the  trustees  were 
obliged  to  consider  his  action  in  leaving  Dartmouth  as 
final. 

The  tremendous  start  given  to  the  school  by  Nathan 
Smith's  unprecedented  skill  and  energy  carried  it  along 
through  many  years  until  its  reputation  was  spread  far 
and  wide;  indeed,  Dr.  Hubbard  asserts  that  "compar- 
ing the  two  schools  [the  Medical  Schools  of  Harvard 
and  Dartmouth]  from  1798  to  1828,  both  inclusive, 
Harvard  graduated  two  hundred  and  thirty  students 
of  medicine,  and  Dartmouth  three  hundred  and  forty." 

No  wonder  that  Dr.  Hubbard  is  impelled  to  add: 
"If  this  were  the  climax  of  Dr.  Smith's  life  and  he  had 
rested  from  his  labors,  and  this  school  was  his  only 
monument,  we  might  justly  inscribe  upon  it  [the  Dart- 
mouth motto],  "Gaudet  tentamine  Virtus." 

Dr.  Smith  had  already  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
one  years,  a  time  of  life  when,  after  achieving  a  great 
work,  men  usually  crave  the  quiet  of  home  and  rest 
from  some  of  their  arduous  labors;  but  the  zeal  of  this 
man  was  untiring,  he  weighed  the  ponderous  question 
before  him  carefully  and  decided  that  the  new  field 
where  ground  had  to  be  broken  needed  him  more  than 
the  one  which  was  then  in  a  flourishing  state  of  culti- 
vation. In  his  acceptance  of  this  professorship  in  the 
Yale    Medical   School   selfish   considerations   had   no 


"Hubbard,  p.  20. 


of  Nathan  Smith  83 

weight.  To  leave  family  and  friends  and  the  school 
which  he  had  struggled  for  fifteen  years  to  establish, 
must  have  cost  the  good  doctor  many  a  heartache,  but 
once  recognizing  a  call  to  be  that  of  duty,  there  was 
no  hesitation  in  his  obedience. 

Dr.  Smith  owned  a  little  farm  at  Hanover  where 
he  could  leave  his  wife  and  younger  children  in  comfort 
until  he  could  make  a  home  for  them  at  New  Haven, 
and  plans  were  made  to  take  up  the  new  work  in  Yale 
College  at  an  early  day.  But,  as  the  following  letters 
from  him  to  Dr.  Silliman  will  show,  Dr.  Smith  was 
detained  in  Hanover  by  the  spread  of  a  most  disastrous 
epidemic,  which  extended  even  to  members  of  his  own 
family. 

In  his  letters  to  Dr.  Silliman,  Dr.  Smith  gives  no 
name  to  the  disease,  but  from  his  "Essay  on  Typhus 
Fever,"  on  page  75  of  "Medical  and  Surgical  Mem- 
oirs," we  gather  that  this  epidemic  was  what  was  then 
called  typhus  fever  (now  typhoid),  for  he  states:  "In 
the  autumn  of  1812,  Professor  Perkins,  now  of  New 
York,  and  myself  attended  between  fifty  and  sixty 
cases  of  Typhus  in  the  vicinity  of  Dartmouth  College, 
and  many  of  them  were  students  of  the  Institution;  of 
the  whole  number  which  came  under  our  care,  only  one 
was  bled,  and  that  on  account  of  a  sense  of  fullness  in 
the  head  of  which  he  complained,  ...  he  eventually 
recovered,"  and,  the  doctor  adds,  "Of  all  our  patients 
we  lost  but  one." 

The  remarkable  success  of  Dr.  Smith  in  saving  the 
lives  of  so  many  patients  ill  with  this  dread  disease, 
was  due  to  his  entirely  original  and  independent  treat- 


84  Life  and  Letters 


ment,  which  he  had  devised  and  practiced  as  early  as 
the  year  1798  at  Cornish.  This  treatment  is  described 
in  the  article  on  typhus  fever,  referred  to  above. 

Of  the  letters  relative  to  Dr.  Smith's  call  to  New 
Haven  one  has  been  preserved,  addressed  to  Dr. 
Mason  Fitch  Cogswell,  of  Hartford,  a  noted  physician 
and  the  founder  of  the  first  asylum  in  the  country  for 
deaf-mutes.  Dr.  Cogswell  had  been  asked  to  take  the 
chair  subsequently  offered  to  Dr.  Smith,  but  felt  his 
work  in  Hartford  of  too  great  importance  to  leave. 
This  letter,  though  undated,  evidently  was  written  at 
about  this  time  and  shows  the  humble  spirit  of  the 
truly  great  man,  ready  to  acknowledge  himself  at  fault 
and  to  endeavor  to  undo  such  harm  as  he  may  have 
been  instrumental  in  causing.  This  was  a  period  in 
which  the  faith  of  many  thinking  men  was  severely 
shaken  as  the  result  of  books  published  about  that 
time,  notably  Paine's  "Age  of  Reason,"  and  perhaps 
Dr.  Smith  may  have  been  for  a  time  one  of  those  so 
influenced. 

The  early  part  of  the  letter  has  to  do  exclusively 
with  surgical  cases.  The  last  part,  referring  to  Dr. 
Smith's  call  to  New  Haven  and  the  considerations 
set  forth  by  the  president  of  the  college,  is  as  follows : 

"Respecting  Dr.  Dwight's  former  objections  to  me, 
I  freely  acknowledge  that  they  were  well  founded  and 
such  as  a  wise  and  good  man  would  always  consider  as 
all  important.  My  earnest  prayer  now  is  to  live  to 
undo  all  the  evil  I  have  done  by  expressing  my  doubts 
as  to  the  truth  of  Divine  Revelation,  and  to  render 


of  Nathan  Smith  85 

to  Society  all  the  good  my  talents  and  powers  will 
permit  me  to  do. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

Nathan  Smith." 

"Hanover,  March  31,  1813. 
Prof.  Silliman,  New  Haven,  Ct. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  the  19th  has  been  received.  Accord- 
ing to  my  promise  to  Dr.  Cogswell  I  intended  to  have 
visited  you  at  New  Haven  last  January,  but  before  I 
was  ready  to  set  off  on  my  journey,  we  were  visited 
by  a  very  fatal  epidemic  and  instances  of  sickness  and 
mortality  became  so  frequent  that  I  was  afraid  to 
leave  my  family  in  such  perilous  times;  and  my  fears 
were  not  groundless, — four  of  my  children  have  lately 
been  affected  by  the  prevailing  epidemic,  but  by  the 
Divine  Goodness  have  nearly  recovered.  I  believe  this 
country  has  never  before  been  visited  by  sickness  which 
has  carried  off  so  great  a  number  of  adult  persons  in 
so  short  a  time.  In  some  towns  of  this  vicinity  which 
contain  perhaps  from  1000  to  1500  inhabitants  they 
have  buried  over  fifty  persons  since  the  first  of  last 
January.  The  disease  has  not  yet  much  abated  either 
in  its  violence  or  frequency  of  attack.  We  hear  of 
new  cases  every  day,  and  almost  every  day  brings  me 
an  account  of  the  death  of  some  friend  or  acquaintance. 


86  Life  and  Letters 


How  long  this  dreadful  calamity  will  be  suffered  to 
afflict  us,  none  can  tell;  but  we  hope  and  pray  that 
when  the  winter  is  over  the  disease  will  disappear. 

The  winter  here  has  been  long  and  severe.  The 
snow  is  deep  and  the  three  last  days  have  been  the 
first  springlike  days  we  have  had. 

Respecting  your  former  letter,  Dr.  Cogswell  wrote 
me  that  he  had  it  and  declined  sending  it  as  he  feared 
it  might  pass  me  on  the  road.  I  wrote  him  to  keep 
it  safe  till  my  arrival,  so  that  I  have  not  seen  it.  Dr. 
Cogswell  however  mentioned  in  his  letter  some  circum- 
stances alluded  to  in  yours,  particularly  respecting  the 
Anatomical  Museum  and  Library.  I  wrote  him  on 
that  subject,  that  I  would  furnish  something  towards  a 
museum  and  that  I  had  between  five  and  six  hundred 
vols,  of  books,  chiefly  medical,  which  should  contribute 
to  build  up  the  intended  Institution  at  New  Haven. 

Respecting  my  visit  to  Court, — that, — sickness  and 
death  excepted,  you  may  depend  on  seeing  me  at  New 
Haven  before  your  General  Court  convenes  at  Hart- 
ford next  May.  I  am,  dear  Sir,  with  high  considera- 
tion, Your  obedient  Servant 

Nathan  Smith." 

"Hanover,  September  2,  18 13. 
Prof.  Silliman,  New  Haven,  Ct. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  favour  of  the  28th  August,  was  handed  [me] 
yesterday.  On  my  arrival  at  home  from  Boston,  I 
found   Mrs.    Smith   convalescent,    for   which   I   have 


of  Nathan  Smith  87 

great  reason  to  render  thanks  to  Divine  Providence; 
she  still  continues  to  convalesce,  so  that  I  think  I  shall 
be  able  to  leave  home  for  New  Haven  soon. 

Respecting  the  terms  and  regulations  you  have 
agreed  on  for  the  government  of  the  Medical  Institu- 
tion, I  have  no  fear  on  that  subject,  and  doubt  not 
but  they  be  well  adapted  to  the  purpose  for  which 
they  were  made. 

I  think  with  you  that  it  will  contribute  much  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  establishment  to  have  commons  in  the 
Medical  College,  as  it  will  probably  reduce  the  price 
of  board,  which  I  find  is  an  object  with  many  who  are 
wishing  to  attend  there.  If  this  arrangement  is  carried 
into  effect,  the  young  gentlemen  can  certainly  go 
through  their  study  term  at  New  Haven,  cheaper  than 
at  Hanover;  the  length  of  time  taken  up  in  our  course 
of  lectures,15  being  greater  than  in  other  institutions  in 
New  England,  will  be  in  favour  of  the  students  in  a 
pecuniary  point  of  view,  for,  while  they  are  living  at 

15  Dr.  Smith  had  evidently  already  identified  his  interests  with  the 
institution  at  New  Haven.  It  is  not  at  first  clear  as  to  whether  he 
means  Dartmouth  or  Yale  in  speaking  of  "our  course  of  lectures,"  but 
we  learn  through  Dr.  Welch,  that  "at  the  beginning,  the  course  of 
medical  lectures  here  [at  Yale]  extended  through  six  months,  a  longer 
period  than  obtained  at  the  time  in  any  other  medical  school  in  this 
country."  He  adds  in  a  note:  "The  length  of  the  annual  course  was 
afterwards  shortened  to  five  months,  then  to  four  months  (1824).  In 
1832  it  was  from  the  second  week  in  November  to  the  last  week  in 
February.  It  is  now  thirty-four  weeks,  exclusive  of  vacations."  It  will 
be  more  readily  understood,  if  the  length  of  the  term  was  only  four  or 
five  months,  how  it  was  possible  for  Dr.  Smith  to  give  courses  at 
Brunswick  and  Burlington  without  interfering  with  his  teaching  at 
New  Haven. 


88  Life  and  Letters 


as  little  expense  as  they  do  in  the  country,  they  pay 
nothing  during  the  lectures  for  private  tuition. 

I  think  you  have  done  well  to  prohibit  the  under- 
graduates from  attending  any  lectures  but  yours  (Chem- 
istry) .  I  have  felt  the  embarrassment  of  lecturing  on 
Anatomy  and  Surgery  before  young  men  who  are  not 
designed  for  the  profession. 

When  Dr.  Cogswell  wrote  to  me  on  the  subject,  my 
answer  was,  that  if  I  had  an  appointment  in  the  insti- 
tution, I  would  take  any  part  on  me  that  in  the  opinion 
of  those  concerned  would  contribute  most  to  the  good 
of  the  establishment.  Therefore  if  it  is  thought  best 
I  will  lecture  as  you  propose.  My  son  who  entered 
the  College  at  Yale  some  time  since,  left  home  before 
I  arrived  from  Boston,  expecting  to  meet  me  at  Weth- 
ersfield  to  make  arrangements  for  him  respecting  room 
at  College  and  to  give  bond  for  the  payment  of  tuition, 
board  &c.  If  anything  should  be  necessary  before  I 
come  to  New  Haven,  I  will  thank  you  to  take  so  much 
concern  for  him  as  to  do  what  may  be  wanting  and  I 
will  see  that  everything  is  done  on  my  part  as  soon  as 
I  arrive.  With  sentiments  of  esteem,  I  remain,  dear 
Sir,  Your  Friend  and  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith." 


(These  two  letters  to  Professor  Silliman  are  in  pos- 
session of  Dr.  Saml.  Theobald,  the  great-grandson  of 
Dr.  Nathan  Smith.) 

In  the  autumn  of  1813,  about  a  month  after  the 
writing  of  the  second  letter  to  Professor  Silliman,  Dr. 


of  Nathan  Smith  8g 

Smith  left  Dartmouth  for  New  Haven.  His  two  sons, 
David  Solon  and  Nathan  Ryno,  were  to  be  with  him  as 
students  at  Yale  College.  His  good  friend,  President 
Wheelock,  and  the  trustees  of  Dartmouth  were  most 
reluctant  to  part  with  him. 


CHAPTER  TENTH 

On  his  arrival  at  New  Haven,  Dr.  Smith  was 
received  with  great  kindness  and  cordiality.  Ex-Presi- 
dent Woolsey,  of  Yale  College,  relates  that  "when  Dr. 
Smith  came  to  lecture  at  Yale,  in  1813,  he  came  directly 
to  my  father's  house,  and  remained  there  all  winter. 
He  was  the  most  delightful,  unselfish  and  kind-hearted 
man  I  ever  knew,  and  we  children  all  loved  him.  He 
was  confined  to  the  house  for  a  month  by  an  injury  to 
his  leg,  and  it  was  a  great  treat  for  us  to  be  in  his  room, 
and  difficult  to  keep  us  out." 

Dr.  Smith  wrote  an  interesting  letter  to  one  of  his 
warm  friends  at  Hanover,  Mr.  Mills  Olcott,  dated 
December,  18 13,  in  which  he  described  his  accident  as 
follows:  "Immediately  on  arriving  into  New  Haven, 
I  fell  into  such  a  run  of  business  that,  it  being  very 
dark  one  evening,  I  ran  my  leg  against  a  plank  with 
such  violence  it  gave  a  pretty  severe  contusion.  Fever 
followed,  but  Mr.  Woolsey  had  received  me  into  his 
house  supplying  all  my  wants  both  in  sickness  and 
health." 

The  same  letter  describes  one  of  his  first  profes- 
sional cases, — a  very  pretty  young  lady  with  white 
swelling  of  the  knee.  She  informed  Dr.  Smith  that 
she  had  had  it  set  five  times, — twice  by  women  and 
three  times  by  male  bone-setters, — but,  instead  of  get- 
ting better,  it  grew  steadily  worse  every  time.  Dr. 
Smith  adds:  "If  I  should  remain  I  must  have  a  severe 


Nathan  Smith 


conflict  with  this  tribe  of  bone-setters,  for  I  never 
could  when  young  and  pliable  get  on  with  them,  and 
now,  grown  old  and  stiff,  I  feel  less  inclined  than  ever 
to  yield  the  least  approbation  to  this  kind  of  gentry." 

As  soon  as  Dr.  Smith  recovered  from  the  injury 
caused  by  his  accident,  he  lost  no  time  in  taking  up 
his  duties  as  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Physic,  Surgery  and  Obstetrics  in  Yale  College.  There 
he  was  to  have  as  associates:  iEneas  Munson,  Pro- 
fessor of  Materia  Medica  and  Botany;  Eli  Ives,  Ad- 
junct Professor  of  Materia  Medica  and  Botany;  Ben- 
jamin Silliman,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Mineralogy 
and  Geology;  and  Jonathan  Knight,  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Physiology. 

Students  came  in  numbers  to  benefit  by  the  instruc- 
tion of  these  eminent  teachers,  and  the  medical  depart- 
ment steadily  grew  with  the  college  in  reputation  and 
importance. 

In  addition  to  his  work  as  instructor  in  medi- 
cine, Dr.  Smith  rapidly  acquired  a  large  practice, 
not  confined  to  the  city  of  New  Haven,  for  his  calls 
were  to  every  county  and  almost  every  town  in  the 
state.  The  sick  and  unfortunate  also  came  to  him 
from  a  distance  to  get  his  ever  ready  help  and  advice. 

In  the  ledger  which  Dr.  Smith  kept  at  New  Haven, 
in  1 8 13,  and  18 14,  are  recorded  the  daily  visits  to 
patients,  and  his  charges  for  professional  services.  A 
photograph  of  one  of  these  pages  will  show  names 
familiar  to  many  even  now,  for  the  descendants  of 
some  of  these  good  people  still  live  in  and  around  New 
Haven.     In  addition  to  the  records  photographed,  we 


92  Life  and  Letters 


find  Roger  Allen,  of  Woodbridge,  appearing  as  first 
patient  in  November,  1813.  Then  here  and  there 
throughout  the  book,  there  are  such  names  as  Hotch- 
kiss,  Atwater,  Hoadley,  Dummer,  James  Hillhouse, 
Judge  Painter,  Mrs.  Shattuck,  President  Dwight, 
George  Munson,  Professor  Silliman,  Miss  Woolsey, 
Jonathan  Edwards  Porter,  another  Nathan  Smith, 
etc.  Many  out  of  town  visits  are  recorded,  and  one 
of  the  last  pages  of  the  ledger  is  taken  up  with  a  list 
of  visits  to  a  lady  who  seems  to  have  been  a  pensioner 
of  the  city,  for  all  the  charges  for  the  visits  are  made 
to  the  town  of  New  Haven. 

One  feature  of  this  interesting  old  book  is  the  low 
price  charged  for  medical  attention.  For  an  ordinary 
visit  with  prescription  the  price  was  only  fifty  cents, 
and  even  when  surgery  was  done  the  charge  seldom 
reached  five  dollars. 

Probably  for  economy  of  space  and  time,  Dr.  Smith 
usually  made  his  ledgers  serve  for  recording  the  heads 
of  his  lectures  as  well  as  for  the  keeping  of  his  accounts. 
This  ledger  of  18 13  and  18 14  contains  a  careful  out- 
line of  his  introductory  lecture  and,  as  it  was  almost 
certainly  the  first  lecture  ever  delivered  in  the  Yale 
Medical  School,  it  may  be  interesting  to  find  it  intro- 
duced in  the  Appendix  to  this  volume. 


J*4~  /k^   &^& 


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4* 
4* 


ulyfirf- 


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-XmJLtfi 


CHAPTER  ELEVENTH 

In  order  to  show  Dr.  Smith's  manner  of  teaching 
and  delivering  his  lectures,  the  following  extract  is 
borrowed  from  Appendix  E  of  Dr.  Oliver  Hubbard's 
admirable  Historical  Discourse.  The  lectures  here 
described  by  Mr.  Nesmith  were  probably  heard  by  him 
at  Dartmouth  when  Dr.  Smith  returned  there  for  his 
special  course  in  1816,  and  the  introductory  lecture 
must  have  been  repeated  by  Dr.  Smith  from  memory, 
as  it  is  no  doubt  the  one  prepared  in  18 13  for  his  first 
address  at  Yale  College. 

The  Hon.  George  W.  Nesmith  (Dartmouth,  1820) 
writes:  "Franklin,  N.  H.,  December  27,  1879. — ^ 
was  my  good  fortune,  in  18 16,  to  hear  him  [Dr.  Smith] 
deliver  three  lectures.  The  first  was  his  introductory 
lecture,  addressed  to  the  Medical  class.  In  this  lecture 
he  gave  the  history  and  progress  of  Medical  Science 
from  the  days  of  Hippocrates  down  to  his  own  time; 
sketching  briefly  the  many  improvements  of  modern 
days,  and  comparing  them  with  the  darkness  and  super- 
stitious practices  of  ancient  times;  illustrating  his  vari- 
ous positions  by  appropriate  anecdotes;  closing  his 
lecture  by  sensible  advice  to  the  students  in  reference  to 
their  conduct,  their  habits  of  study,  inculcating  industry, 
close  and  earnest  investigation,  and  the  acquisition  of 
all  that  knowledge  best  calculated  to  make  them  good 
citizens  and  useful  in  their  profession.  This  lecture 
was  extempore  entirely — without  notes — delivered  in 


94  Life  and  Letters 


plain,  familiar  language,  without  any  apparent  attempt 
at  display,  still  demanding  and  receiving  the  strict 
attention  of  his  hearers.  It  is  now  more  than  sixty- 
three  years  since  I  heard  that  lecture  and  much  of  what 
he  then  said  is  still  impressed  upon  my  memory. 

"The  next  lecture  I  heard  was  about  one  month  later, 
and  was  specially  devoted  to  'discussion  upon  the  effects 
of  wounds  or  injuries  upon  the  head  and  brain.' 

"This  subject  gave  the  Professor  opportunity  to 
relate  to  his  class  many  and  diverse  cases  that  had 
occurred  in  his  long  and  extensive  practice.  He  made 
this  lecture  interesting,  having  a  skeleton  head  before 
him,  enabling  him  to  illustrate  this  class  of  injuries  to 
this  delicate  part  of  the  human  frame.  The  Professor 
allowed  the  students  the  free  use  of  interrogatories. 
Whereupon  a  certain  student,  not  the  sharpest,  intel- 
lectually, of  the  number,  inquired  'if  it  would  not  be 
possible  to  transfer  living  sentient  brains  from  one  head 
to  another's?'  Professor  Smith  answered  'that  he  was 
not  aware  that  a  wise  Providence  had  yet  pointed  out 
any  successful  mode  of  effecting  this  object;  but  he 
thought  if  the  gentleman,  who  puts  the  question,  could 
make  a  discovery  of  this  nature,  it  might  prove  of  great 
advantage  to  himself  and  many  others  in  this  world.' 
He  asked  no  more  questions  that  day. 

"The  third  lecture  was  upon  'the  diseases  incident  to 
the  New  England  climate  and  their  treatment.'  Here 
Professor  Smith  was  much  at  home  in  a  learned  dis- 
cussion upon  fevers.  It  appeared  he  had  written  and 
sent  out  to  the  public  something  upon  this  subject.  My 
recollection  is  he  discussed  the  character  and  symptoms 


of  Nathan  Smith  95 

and  treatment  of  the  Spotted  Fever,  which  had  pre- 
vailed extensively  through  many  parts  of  New  England. 
I  sympathized  with  his  remarks  on  this  subject,  and 
could  attest  to  their  truthfulness,  because  it  had  visited 
our  town  (Antrim?)  in  18 12. 

"He  merited  all  the  encomiums  conferred  upon  him 
by  you  and  more.  Many  of  the  good  works  that  he  did 
will  never  be  recorded.  The  Institutions  he  aided  or 
established  will  be  living  monuments  consecrated  to  his 
memory,  we  trust,  forever." 

One  beautiful  trait  in  the  character  of  this  great  man 
was  his  tenderness  and  strong  affection  for  his  friends 
and  his  family.  All  of  the  histories  of  Dr.  Smith 
demonstrate  that  in  his  busy  life  he  could  not  have  had 
many  leisure  moments,  and  yet  no  rush  of  business 
could  ever  crowd  out  from  his  loving  heart  the  constant 
thought  of  his  home  and  family,  so  that  the  many  neces- 
sary separations  from  them  were  among  his  severest 
trials,  as  the  following  letter  to  his  wife  will  show. 

"To  Mrs.  Sally  H.  Smith,  Hanover,  N.  H. 
My  Dearly  and  Well-beloved: 

I  fear  that  my  absence  has  been  severely  felt  by  you 
and  the  children.  For  my  own  part  I  have  had  a 
dreary  winter  of  it;  you  may  rest  assured  that  I  will 
never  leave  you  and  the  dear  children  so  long  a  time 
during  my  lifetime.  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  get  home 
by  the  middle  of  April.  I  will  thank  you  to  tell  Plumley 
that  I  wish  him  to  engage  somebody  to  do  the  ploughing 
and  sowing  in  the  Spring,  as  it  may  be  necessary  to 


g6  Life  and  Letters 


have  it  begun  before  I  can  reach  home.  Do  kiss  all  the 
children  for  me  and  tell  them  that  papa  will  come 
home  and  never  leave  them  again. 

Solon  and  Ryno  are  both  very  well  and  doing  very 
well  in  their  studies.  Ryno  is  one  of  the  first  in  his  class 
and  Solon  has  improved  very  much. 

We  have  lately  had  some  difficulty  in  the  School 
between  the  cooks  and  the  scholars.  A  cook  abused 
one  of  the  scholars  in  the  kitchen  and  the  scholars  put 
the  cook  under  the  pump  and  pumped  him,  as  it  is 
called.  I  think,  however,  it  will  be  settled  without 
much  difficulty.  Solon  was  one  who  helped  to  pump  the 
cook,  but  so  many  assisted  in  the  thing  that  the  blame 
will  be  light  on  the  individuals. 

Miss  Painter,  who  was  at  Hanover  two  summers  ago 
for  her  health,  is  here  now  under  my  care.  I  have 
obtained  a  good  deal  of  business  since  I  came  here  for 
which  I  shall  receive  my  pay  in  the  Spring.  The  people 
in  New  Haven  expect  to  see  you  here  in  the  Spring, 
but  it  is  not  certain  that  I  shall  ever  remove  to  this 
place.    I  am  with  the  fondest  affection  yours  forever, 

Nathan  Smith. 
New  Haven,  March  4,  18 14." 

The  school  began  its  work  in  October,  18 13,  with  a 
class  of  over  thirty  students,  in  the  building  at  the  head 
of  College  Street,  which  had  been  erected  for  a  hotel 
by  James  Hillhouse.  This  was  readily  adapted  to  its 
new  uses  and,  after  a  short  lease,  purchased  by  the 
Medical  Institution,  together  with  a  considerable  tract 
of  land   adjoining,   designed   for  use   as   a   botanical 


of  Nathan  Smith  gj 

garden.  The  money  necessary  for  this  purchase  was 
obtained  through  the  personal  application  of  Dr.  Smith 
to  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  which 
responded  with  the  generous  sum  of  $20,000,  which 
proved  sufficient  to  secure  not  only  the  building  and 
grounds,  but  to  furnish  the  beginning  of  a  library  and 
of  an  anatomical  museum. 

The  plan  for  a  botanical  garden  must  have  been 
particularly  pleasing  to  Dr.  Smith. 

In  his  letter  of  October  4,  1809,  he  rejoiced  in  the 
opportunity  offered  him  to  profit  by  a  garden  produc- 
tive of  healing  herbs  in  Salem,  and  in  April,  181 1,  he 
writes  of  his  intention  to  petition  the  Legislature  of 
New  Hampshire  for  a  thousand  dollars  with  which  to 
begin  a  botanical  garden  at  Dartmouth. 

"The  garden  for  the  Yale  Medical  School  was  estab- 
lished on  grounds  adjacent  to  the  building  on  Grove 
Street,  by  the  exertions  of  Professor  Eli  Ives  and  at  his 
own  expense.  A  hothouse  was  built  and  a  variety  of 
native  and  foreign  plants,  shrubs  and  trees,  mostly  of 
a  medicinal  nature,  were  planted.  Dr.  M.  C.  Leaven- 
worth, a  graduate  of  the  Medical  Department  in  1817, 
who  was  a  good  botanist,  was  engaged  to  make  a  col- 
lection of  indigenous  plants  for  the  garden,  and  at  one 
time  there  was  a  good  collection  of  such  plants.  The 
time  and  expense  involved,  however,  proved  to  be 
burdensome,  and  the  garden,  after  a  protracted 
struggle  for  life,  perished  from  neglect." — Welch,  note 
26. 

"  'Commons'  were  instituted  in  the  basement  of  the 
building,  and  above  were  sleeping  and  study  rooms  for 


g8  Life  and  Letters 


the  students.  The  close  connection  with  the  college  is 
evidenced  by  the  attempt  to  introduce  into  the  Medical 
School  academic  customs  of  the  former.  The  medical 
class  assembled  morning  and  evening  for  prayers,  the 
professors  officiating,  and  the  rigid  rules  governing  the 
academic  department  were  enforced.  These  academic 
customs  were  discontinued  in  1824  with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Theological  and  Law  Departments.  They 
are  probably  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  medical 
schools. 

"In  1835  and  subsequently,  enlargements  and  other 
improvements  were  made  in  the  medical  building,  better 
fitting  it  for  its  purposes,  especially  for  anatomical 
work.  At  the  beginning  a  few  hundred  dollars  were 
advanced  by  the  College  Corporation  to  enable  the 
School  to  begin  its  work,  but  later  this  sum  was 
refunded." — Welch,  note  30. 

In  this  building,  now  familiar  to  all  as  "South  Sheff," 
or  Sheffield  Hall,  the  work  of  the  Medical  Department 
was  carried  on  for  forty-five  years  until  in  1859  the 
property  was  sold  to  Hon.  Joseph  E.  Sheffield  for  a 
Scientific  School,  and  from  the  funds  thus  obtained  the 
present  building  was  erected  on  York  Street,  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  Medical  School. 

According  to  popular  hearsay,  this  change  of  loca- 
tion was  necessitated  by  the  proximity  of  the  Grove 
Street  Cemetery  to  the  original  situation,  the  belief 
being  current  that  resurrectionists  found  it  all  too  easy 
to  introduce  subjects  for  dissection  disinterred  from 
New  Haven's  "Westminster,"  as  the  cemetery  across 
the  street  is  sometimes  denominated  from  the  great 


of  Nathan  Smith  gg 

number  of  distinguished  men  whose  remains  have  been 
interred  there. 

Strong  feeling  against  "the  cutting  up  of  dead 
bodies"  had  made  trouble  for  the  Medical  School  in 
New  Hampshire,  as  Dr.  Smith's  letter  of  May  14, 
1 8 10,  testifies,  and  doubtless  all  of  the  early  medical 
schools  had  to  contend  against  similar  popular  preju- 
dice and  ignorance. 

In  the  spring  of  18 15,  Dr.  Smith  was  called  to  his 
home  at  Hanover  by  the  extreme  illness  of  his  eldest 
daughter,  Sally  Malvina,  a  lovely  girl  of  sixteen  years. 
There  seems  to  have  been  nothing  that  the  devoted 
father  and  skilled  ptrysician  could  do  to  save  the  pre- 
cious life  of  his  child,  whose  passing  to  the  Better 
Home  on  June  13  is  described  as  a  scene  of  "perfect 
Christian  peace  and  Heavenly  serenity"  which  im- 
pressed all  about  her  with  the  comfort  which  faith  and 
trust  alone  can  give. 

The  influence  of  the  good  Bishop  Philander  Chase 
must  have  lingered  around  his  family  and  friends  long 
after  he  had  left  the  neighborhood  of  Dartmouth,  for 
Mrs.  Smith  and  many  of  the  Chase  family  were  earnest 
Christians.  President  Allen,  of  Bowdoin  College, 
stated  in  his  address  of  1 829  that  the  death  of  this  dear 
daughter,  following  that  of  Dr.  Smith's  friend  and 
patient,  Mr.  Hubbard,  Professor  of  Mathematics  at 
Dartmouth,  overwhelmed  Dr.  Smith  with  wonder  and 
convinced  him  beyond  all  question  of  the  truth  and 
efficacy  of  religion. 

Mr.  Hubbard  was  a  cultured  and  strong  man  of 
many  accomplishments,  whose  eloquent  expressions  of 


ioo  Life  and  Letters 


trust  in  his  Saviour  and  of  lofty  anticipations  of  happi- 
ness in  the  world  he  was  about  to  enter  impressed  all 
who  were  around  him  in  his  dying  hours  with  the  truth 
and  power  of  religion.  Dr.  Smith,  who  was  present, 
did  not  ascribe  this  radiance  of  Christian  hope  and  com- 
fort to  "nervous  influence  or  to  an  inflamed  fancy — 
for  Mr.  Hubbard  was  a  man  of  reason  and  argument 
as  well  as  of  feeling,  and  his  words  carried  conviction 
to  the  mind  as  well  as  emotion  to  the  heart." 

The  death  of  this  daughter  was  the  first  break  in  the 
home  circle  and  came  as  a  crushing  sorrow,  never  to  be 
entirely  outlived,  and  it  must  have  been  harder  than 
ever  for  the  husband  and  father  to  leave  his  bereaved 
family  to  go  back  to  work  at  Yale  College;  but  it  is 
probable  that,  as  the  summer  was  already  at  hand,  he 
was  able  to  spend  the  long  vacation  with  them  before 
returning  to  New  Haven. 

As  has  been  already  stated,  he  was  invited  to  Dart- 
mouth soon  after  to  give  another  course  of  lectures  and 
no  doubt  his  visits  to  his  home  and  family  were  not 
infrequent,  although  in  those  days,  when  there  were  no 
railroads  or  conveniences  for  rapid  travel,  journeys 
were  very  difficult  to  accomplish,  and  long  separations 
must  sometimes  have  been  inevitable. 

Letters  to  Dr.  Smith's  intimate  friend,  Mr.  Mills 
Olcott,  at  Hanover,  show  that  he  returned  to  New 
Haven  in  September,  1815,  having  Miss  Mary  Olcott 
under  his  care.  In  October  of  that  year  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  Olcott:  "I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  kind 
attention  to  my  family  and  hope  you  will  continue  to 
look  a  little  after  them." 


of  Nathan  Smith  101 

Again,  in  January,  1816,  he  wrote  to  the  same  good 
friend:  "I  feel  very  anxious  about  my  family.  I  wish 
you  would  call  on  Mrs.  Smith  and  if  anything  is  wanting 
to  make  her  comfortable  during  this  stormy  season,  if 
you  will  lend  her  the  necessary  aid  I  will  remunerate 
you  if  I  live, — as  I  trust  I  shall." 

The  Junior  exhibition  of  1 8 1 6  was  held  in  the  Chapel 
at  Yale  College,  on  Tuesday,  May  7,  when  the  name  of 
N.  R.  Smith  appears  on  the  card  of  invitation  as  one  of 
the  managers.  This  photograph  of  one  of  the  original 
cards  will  be  found  quaint  and  interesting.  It  was  in 
this  year  that  Solon  took  his  degree  of  M.D.,  an  occa- 
sion of  great  pride  and  interest  to  the  family — and  it 
is  probable  that  his  good  father  at  this  time  appreciated 
more  than  ever  the  necessity  of  collecting  his  family 
into  a  more  settled  home. 

He  therefore  gave  his  final  course  of  lectures  at 
Dartmouth  during  that  summer,  and,  declining  reelec- 
tion to  a  professorship  there,  immediately  went  about 
making  arrangements  for  the  removal  of  his  family  to 
New  Haven,  which  was  accomplished  early  in  the 
spring  of  18 17.  With  efforts  and  interests  concen- 
trated in  one  place,  Dr.  Smith  began  to  feel  relief  from 
certain  anxieties,  and  having  arrived  at  the  zenith  of 
his  ripe  knowledge  and  experience,  it  is  said  that  at  no 
time  in  his  life  was  he  able  to  accomplish  more  wonder- 
ful work  as  teacher,  writer  and  practitioner,  than  in  the 
years  which  followed  this  removal  to  New  Haven. 

The  following  rather  gratifying  testimonial  came  to 
him  from  his  pupils  in  the  spring  of  18 17 : 


102  Life  and  Letters 


"Professor  Smith,  Sir: 

Conscious  of  your  abilities  and  the  exertions  you 

have  made  in  contributing  to  the  improvement  of  the 

medical  class  in  the  study  of  Surgery  and  Practice  of 

Physic  the  winter  past : 

We,   as   in  their  behalf,   acknowledge   their   entire 

satisfaction  with  the  Lectures  and,  with  emotions  of 

gratitude  and  sentiments  of  much  respect,  return  you 

their  sincere  thanks. 

Benjamin  Trumbull, 
David  S.  Edwards, 

Committee. 
New  Haven,  March  22,  1817." 


m 


\Iarm^'rsoft/i€         ^~4 


<,.        ^tUSTozr 


•G 


^isty 


(ihn 


CHAPTER  TWELFTH 

The  summers  of  1816  and  18 17  brought  events  of 
great  importance  to  the  young  Smiths.  Solon  took  the 
degree  of  M.D.  at  Commencement  in  18 16,  for  which 
occasion  Nathan  Ryno,  a  Junior  of  the  regular  college 
course,  wrote  a  play  called  "The  Quixotic  Philoso- 
pher," which  was  acted,  with  great  applause,  by  the 
students,  he  himself  taking  a  prominent  part.  The  play 
added  much  to  the  entertainment  of  the  members  of  the 
college  and  its  visitors,  and  was  said  to  be  very  clever, 
showing  great  literary  talent  on  the  part  of  its  young 
author.  In  18 17  Nathan  Ryno  received  the  degree 
of  A.B. 

Dr.  Smith,  with  his  usual  promptness  in  action  and 
his  great  interest  in  the  future  welfare  of  his  sons, 
immediately  after  their  graduation  sought  to  make  the 
best  plans  for  their  advancement  in  life.  For  the 
younger  one,  Nathan  Ryno,  he  secured  a  fine  position 
as  classical  tutor  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Thomas  Turner, 
of  Fauquier  County,  Virginia,  a  gentleman  of  wealth 
and  position;  but  after  a  year  or  more  there,  young  Mr. 
Smith  realized  that,  although  he  had  enjoyed  his  work 
as  instructor  and  had  formed  a  strong  attachment  to 
his  friends  of  Virginia,  and  a  sympathy  and  love  for  the 
southern  people  which  went  with  him  through  life,  his 
tastes  were  all  pointing  in  the  direction  of  medicine  and 
surgery  as  his  special  vocation.  He  therefore  returned 
to  New  Haven,  and  began  to  study  medicine  under  his 


104  Life  and  Letters 


father  and  the  other  eminent  professors  of  the  Medical 
Department  of  Yale  College. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Dr.  Smith  had  given  Solon  rare 
opportunities  for  the  study  of  botany  by  employing  a 
German  botanist  to  travel  with  him  for  a  year  through 
the  western  country,  which  enabled  him  to  classify  and 
know  the  medical  properties  of  nearly  all  the  plants  of 
the  country.  He  was  also  a  fine  naturalist  and  gave 
much  attention  to  entomology.  Some  time  later  he 
furnished  descriptions  of  the  New  England  reptiles  for 
President  Hitchcock's  great  work.  The  two  letters  to 
Dr.  Shattuck  which  follow  give  an  idea  of  Dr.  Smith's 
hopes  and  plans  for  Solon. 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  wish  for  your  assistance  in  a  certain  way.  Solon 
writes  me  that  he  has  learnt  by  the  public  papers  that 
an  expedition  is  to  be  fitted  out  to  make  an  establish- 
ment at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River.  He  wishes, 
if  possible,  to  obtain  the  office  of  Surgeon's  Mate  in 
that  expedition,  which  would,  he  thinks,  favour  his 
project  for  acquiring  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
Botany  and  Natural  History  of  North  America.  Mr. 
Crowninshield  lives  in  your  vicinity,  and  I  wish  you 
to  sound  him  on  the  subject,  and  you  may  state  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,16  that  Solon  has  been  fully  edu- 
cated in  the  Science  of  Medicine,  and  has  studied 
Botany  practically,  and  is  perhaps  not  behind  any  one 
of  his  age  in  the  United  States;  and  also  suggest  that 

16  Mr.   Crowninshield   was   Secretary   of   the   Navy  only   until   No- 
vember, 1818. 


of  Nathan  Smith  105 

an  industrious  botanist  stationed  in  that  unexplored 
region,  might,  besides  doing  his  duty  in  the  service, 
render  this  country  essential  service  by  his  discoveries. 

Professor  Silliman  is  now  absent,  and  as  soon  as  he 
returns,  we,  the  Professors  of  Yale  College,  shall  make 
out  Solon's  certificate  and  credentials  in  manner  and 
form,  and  send  them  to  Mr.  Secretary,  and  also  for- 
ward them  to  the  Seat  of  Government. 

Please  to  accept  my  very  great  regards  for  yourself 
and  Mrs.  Shattuck  and  also  remember  me  affectionately 
to  Mrs.  Derby.  Also  present  my  very  great  respects 
to  Mr.  Elliot  and  family. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem  yours,  &c. 

Nathan  Smith. 
New  Haven,  August  31,  18 18. 
To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  wrote  you  a  few  days  since  respecting  a  place  for 
Solon  in  the  Navy  or  Army;  as  the  hurly  burly  of  Com- 
mencement is  now  over,  the  subject  will  be  attended  to 
by  the  Professors  and  his  testimonials  will  be  for- 
warded to  the  proper  authority;  a  commission  in  the 
Army,  if  it  cannot  be  obtained  in  the  Navy,  will  enable 
him  to  travel  in  the  Western  country,  (which  he  much 
wishes  for) ,  if  he  can  be  stationed  in  that  region. 

We  were  much  pleased  with  your  pupil,  Mr.  Wells, 
who  from  his  modest  deportment  and  amiable  manners 
promises  well.  Mr.  Wells  will  be  able  to  give  you  an 
account  of  our  Commencement.    A  class  of  sixty-seven 


io6  Life  and  Letters 


graduated  and  we  think  the  present  Freshman  class 
will  be  considerably  more  numerous.  We  do  not  know 
how  many  we  shall  have  in  our  next  class  of  medical 
students,  but,  from  the  present  appearances  I  think  it 
will  exceed  any  we  have  had  before. 

I  am  with  esteem  yours,  &c.  &c. 

Nathan  Smith. 

New  Haven,  September  10,  1818. 
To  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

The  history  of  Sutton,  Mass.,  compiled  by  the  Rev. 
Messrs.  Benedict  and  Tracy,  contains  quite  a  full 
account  of  the  life  there  of  Solon,  from  which  we  gather 
that  the  position  in  the  army  or  navy,  which  his  father 
so  anxiously  sought  for  him,  was  not  obtained,  and  that 
he  started  the  practice  of  medicine  in  that  town  in  18 19, 
when  there  were  already  three  other  doctors  in  the 
district.  Solon's  thorough  training  and  the  prestige  of 
his  father's  fame,  however,  soon  helped  to  make  him 
one  of  the  most  popular  physicians  in  that  part  of  the 
country. 

He  is  described  as  a  large  man,  of  fine  personal 
appearance,  with  great,  piercing,  gray  eyes,  which  his 
patients  thought  could  look  straight  through  them  and 
tell  exactly  what  was  the  cause  of  complaint. 

Sutton  had  been  the  home  of  many  of  his  ancestors, 
for  his  great-great-grandfather,  Samuel  Dudley,  de- 
scended from  the  Dudleys  and  Suttons  of  England,  was 
the  founder  of  the  settlement  and  the  name,  Sutton,  was 
given  to  it  in  his  honor.  The  Chase  grandparents 
were  also  residents  of  Sutton. 


of  Nathan  Smith 


ioy 


On  the  26th  of  July,  18 19,  the  sixth  little  daughter 
and  tenth  child  was  born  to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Nathan 
Smith.  They  called  the  child  Sarah,  for  her  mother  as 
well  as  for  the  elder  sister  who  had  died  at  Hanover 
four  years  earlier. 

This  advent  made  the  number  of  Dr.  Smith's  family 
complete.  A  copy  of  a  page  from  the  family  Bible,  in 
which  Dr.  Smith  had  with  his  own  hand  most  carefully 
registered  all  of  the  births  of  his  children,  may  prove 
of  interest  here. 

Children  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  and  His  Wife, 
Sarah  Hall  Chase  Smith. 


David     Solon     Chase     Hall 

Smith    was  born  27th  June 

1795  at  3  o'clock  A.M. 
Nathan     Ryno     Smith     was 

born  21st  May  1797  at  1 

o'clock  P.M.     Sunday. 
Sally    Malvina    Smith    was 

born  Dec.  27th  1799  at  4 

o'clock  P.M. 
Gratia  Eliza  Smith  was  born 

16th    May    1802    at    11 

o'clock  A.M.    Sunday. 
Mary    Amanda    Smith    was 

born  30th  Dec.  1803  at  11 

o'clock  A.M. 
James    Morven    Smith    born 

Sept.  23rd  8  o'clock  P.M. 

in  the  year  1805.   Monday. 
Catherine      Camilla      Smith 

born  July  2nd  at  1  o'clock 

AM.,  1807. 


Laura  Matilda  Smith  born 
on  the  3rd  day  of  Dec. 
1809  at  2  o'clock  in  the 
morning.     Sunday. 

John  Derby  Smith  born  on 
the  9th  day  of  April  A.D. 
1812 — at  6  o'clock  in  the 
evening.     Thursday. 

Sarah Smith  born  on 

the  26th  day  of  July  1819 
at  8  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
Monday. 


Gratia  Eliza  Smith  married 
Dec.  30th  1822. 

David  S.  C.  H.  Smith  mar- 
ried July  26th  1820. 


Sally    Malvina    Smith    died 
June  13th  1815. 


io8  Life  and  Letters 


It  is  evident  from  the  above  register  that  marriages 
of  the  older  children  soon  began  to  follow  the  birth  of 
the  little  Sarah,  and  if  no  other  records  were  left  of 
them,  the  people  of  the  present  day  might  be  left  in 
ignorance  as  to  whom  the  children  married;  for  the 
fact  that  they  were  married  on  a  certain  date  seemed 
to  be  all  that  impressed  their  father,  who  registered  the 
brief  statements.  David  Solon  C.  H.  Smith  married 
Lucy  Hall, — probably  his  cousin, — of  Sutton,  where 
he  continued  to  live  and  practice  medicine.  Gratia 
Eliza  married  Rev.  I.  S.  Lincoln,  in  her  father's  house 
at  New  Haven. 


Yale  Medical  College  in  1840 


CHAPTER  THIRTEENTH 

In  June,  1820, — according  to  President  Allen  of 
Bowdoin, — the  first  Legislature  of  the  new  State  of 
Maine  passed  an  act  establishing  and  endowing  the 
Medical  School  of  Maine,  and  he  asserts  that  "the 
creation  of  this  school  may  be  in  no  small  degree 
ascribed  to  the  fact,  that  Dr.  Smith  had  been  consulted 
on  the  subject  of  being  placed  at  the  head  of  it."  Dr. 
Allen  writes  further  that:  "Before  the  session  of  this 
Legislature,  and  before  I  became  a  resident  in  this 
State,  I  received  from  him  a  communication,  in  reply 
to  a  letter  suggesting  the  plan  of  such  a  school  in 
Maine,  in  which  he  said,  he  should  take  great  delight 
in  cooperating  in  such  an  institution.  He  added: — 'I 
think  after  what  experience  I  have  had,  we  could  form 
a  medical  school,  that  would,  in  point  of  real  utility, 
equal  any  in  the  country. — In  a  new  State  like  Maine, 
where  neither  habit  nor  party  have  laid  their  ruthless 
hands  on  the  public  institutions  and  where  the  minds  of 
men  are  free  from  their  poisoning  influence,  everything 
is  to  be  hoped  for.'  " 

Dr.  Smith  wrote  the  following  letter  from  New 
Haven  to  Dr.  Shattuck  before  taking  up  his  duties  in 
the  new  Medical  School  of  Bowdoin  College  at 
Brunswick,  Maine. 

"New  Haven,  January  7,  1821. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  engaged  to  go  to  Bowdoin  College  and  to 


no  Life  and  Letters 

deliver  a  course  of  lectures  which  will  continue  about 
ten  weeks,  for  which  I  am  to  have  six  hundred  dollars. 
President  Allen  has  written  to  me  saying  that  there  is 
a  young  physician  by  the  name  of  Arnold  who  has  had 
considerable  experience  in  dissecting,  and  wished  me 
to  consult  him  about  going  on  with  me,  and  to  ascertain 
what  compensation  would  satisfy  him.  It  is  not  prob- 
able that  his  services  will  be  wanted  more  than  five  or 
six  weeks.  Will  thank  you  to  feel  of  him  on  the  subject, 
if  you  think  he  would  be  a  suitable  person,  and  learn 
his  terms  if  he  is  inclined  to  go  with  me. 

I  have  one  more  favor  to  ask  of  you,  and  that  is  to 
see  if  you  can  find  some  young  man  in  Boston  who 
would  agree  to  furnish  us  with  two  or  three  subjects. 
They  could  be  sent  to  Portland  and  by  water.  The 
College  expects  to  pay  the  expense  and  will  be  willing 
to  give  a  reasonable  compensation.  Perhaps  some 
young  man  who  wants  cash  might  be  willing  to  furnish 
two  or  three.  They  will  not  be  wanted  till  some  time 
in  March. 

We  have  a  good  class  of  medical  students  in  this 
Institution,  about  sixty  very  respectable  young  men.  I 
have  pushed  on  my  course  of  lectures  with  a  view  to  my 
engagement  at  Bowdoin.  I  am  through  Theory  and 
Practice  and  have  advanced  some  ways  in  Surgery. 

I  shall  go  to  Brunswick  by  the  way  of  Boston  and 
will  then  see  you;  this  will  be  the  fore  part  of  next 
month. 

I  have  performed  many  surgical  operations  in  the 
last  year,  and  some  of  great  importance.  My  success 
has   been   very  great   as   respects   curing,    and   if  my 


of  Nathan  Smith  /// 

patients  had  been  of  the  right  sort,  my  business  would 
have  been  very  good,  but  alas,  many  of  them  have 
been  poor,  and  the  people  in  Connecticut  have  no  idea 
of  rewarding  professional  men  except  by  compulsion  or 
by  being  begged.  The  lawyers  compel,  and  the  priests 
beg  for  pious  purposes. 

Please  to  remember  me  affectionately  to  Mrs.  Shat- 
tuck,  Mrs.  Davis  and  Mrs.  Derby. 

I  am  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Your  Obedient  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

From  President  Allen's  address  we  gather  that  the 
Medical  School  of  Maine  was  opened  in  the  spring  of 
1 82 1,  the  governors  of  the  college  having  very  liberally 
offered  apartments  for  the  purpose  in  Massachusetts 
Hall.  Dr.  Smith  delivered  the  various  lectures,  with 
the  exception  of  chemistry,  in  which  branch  ample 
instruction  had  for  many  years  previous  been  given  at 
the  college  by  Professor  Parker  Cleaveland.  He  was 
assisted,  however,  in  anatomy  by  Dr.  John  Doane 
Wells,17  the  expert  hand  which  two  years  afterwards 
relieved  him  wholly  in  that  department  and  in  surgery. 
Dr.  Wells  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  and  a  pupil  of 
Dr.  Shattuck,  who  in  answer  to  Dr.  Smith's  letter 
recommended  him  for  the  position. 

17  John  Doane  Wells,  Harvard  A.  M.  1817,  and  M.D.  1820;  also 
Berks.  Med.  Inst.  Mass.  1829,  afterwards  Professor  of  Anatomy  at 
the  University  of  Maryland. 


ii2  Life  and  Letters 


There  were  twenty-one  young  gentlemen  at  the  first 
course.  The  next  year  they  had  increased  to  forty- 
nine.  In  the  year  1829  there  were  nearly  a  hundred, 
and  Dr.  Allen  ascribed  much  of  the  success  of  the 
school  to  the  reputation,  experience  and  skill  of  Dr. 
Smith.  In  his  surgical  clinic  during  the  first  course  he 
couched  nearly  twenty  eyes  for  cataract,  one  eye  was 
completely  removed,  a  leg  was  amputated,  and  various 
other  surgical  operations  were  performed,  which 
brought  relief  to  sufferers,  while  increasing  the  advan- 
tages of  the  students. 

Dr.  Nehemiah  Cleaveland,  in  his  history  of  Bowdoin 
College,  states  that  "Dr.  Smith  had  been  the  steadfast 
friend  of  the  venerable  Wheelock  [of  Dartmouth], 
and  though  no  partisan,  he  had  deeply  felt  for  him  in 
those  troubles  which  saddened  his  last  days.  .  .  .  His 
friendship  for  President  Wheelock  extended  to  the 
son-in-law  [President  Allen  of  Bowdoin],  and  made 
him  [Dr.  Smith]  the  more  willing  to  give  his  name  and 
strength  to  a  work  which  was  in  other  respects  con- 
genial to  his  spirit."  Dr.  Cleaveland  states  further: 
"As  I  was  at  that  time  studying  medicine,  I  joined  the 
class  [of  1 821],  attended  the  lectures,  was  present  at 
most  of  his  operations  in  the  neighborhood,  and  saw 
much  of  him  in  general  society.  The  course  over,  I 
accompanied  him,  in  that  most  sociable  of  vehicles,  a 
one-horse  chaise,  on  a  professional  tour  to  Wiscasset 
and  up  the  Kennebec.  Of  my  intercourse — at  once 
pleasing  and  profitable — with  that  great  man  the  im- 
pressions are  still  vivid.  .   .   . 

"Dr.  Smith  was  a  large  man.   .    .    .  His  expression 


of  Nathan  Smith  773 

and  genial  countenance,  his  very  attitude  and  air,  were 
admirably  caught  by  the  great  artist  who  fixed  them  on 
his  canvas,  and  whose  picture  will  reproduce  his  image 
to  all  who  knew  him.  .  .  .18  There  was  no  show  of 
learning,  no  attempt  at  brilliancy,  no  assumption  of 
dignity  or  superiority.  The  admiration  which  was  felt 
for  his  ability  and  wisdom — a  feeling  shared  by  all  who 
knew  him — could  be  accounted  for  only  by  his  posses- 
sion of  those  attributes." 

18  The  portrait  here  referred  to  is  supposably  the  well-known  one 
painted  by  Samuel  Finley  Breese  Morse  for  the  Yale  Medical  School 
Class  of  1826,  a  copy  of  which  appears  opposite  title  page  of  this  book. 
This  picture,  Professor  Silliman  says,  is  "esteemed  one  of  the  best 
works  of  that  artist."  Morse's  fame  as  a  portrait  painter  has  been 
so  eclipsed  by  that  of  his  later  achievements  as  inventor  of  the  tele- 
graph that  his  work  as  an  artist  has  not  had  the  prominence  in  the 
popular  mind  which  it  merited. 


CHAPTER     FOURTEENTH 

The  summer  course  of  lectures  at  Bowdoin  did  not 
in  any  wise  conflict  with  the  regular  work  of  Dr.  Smith 
at  New  Haven,  for  that  city  continued  to  be  the  theatre 
of  his  most  important  professional  achievements  as 
physician,  surgeon  and  teacher  of  medicine,  and  it  was 
during  the  time  of  his  connection  with  Yale  that  he  per- 
formed some  of  his  most  remarkable  operations. 

It  was  on  July  5,  1821,  at  Norwich,  Vt.,  that  he 
performed  the  extraordinary  operation  of  ovariotomy, 
which  should  in  itself  have  rendered  his  name  famous 
and  which  would,  doubtless,  have  been  associated  with 
him  but  for  the  fact  that  McDowell  in  Kentucky  had 
performed  a  similar  operation  some  nine  years  pre- 
vious, although  of  this  Dr.  Smith  had  no  knowledge. 

Such  an  authority  as  Dr.  Gilman  Kimball  of  Lowell, 
Mass.,  says:  "Ephraim  McDowell,  as  has  been  already 
said,  will  be  regarded  in  all  time  to  come  as  the  'father 
of  ovariotomy,'  and  as  one  of  the  master  spirits  of  his 
profession.  It  was  my  privilege  to  be  present  at  the 
dedication  of  the  monument  to  him,  and  to  listen  to  the 
words  I  have  just  quoted  as  they  fell  from  the  lips  of 
the  orator  on  that  occasion. 

"Doubtless,  in  point  of  time,  the  credit  should  be 
given  to  the  Kentucky  surgeon  as  having  been  the  first 
ever  to  successfully  perform  the  operation  of  ovari- 
otomy. 

"But  I  believe  I  should  be  guilty  of  a  great  injustice 


Nathan  Smith  115 


to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  did  I  not  insist 
upon  this  fact,  that  has  already  been  almost  forgotten, 
and  place  upon  the  imperishable  page  of  history  the 
assertion  which  I  think  every  candid  reader  will  admit 
— viz.,  that,  in  point  of  absolute  merit,  Dr.  Nathan 
Smith  is  entitled  to  the  same  honors  that  have  been 
accorded  to  Dr.  McDowell.  Nor  was  his  first  opera- 
tion an  accidental  one,  as  has  been  intimated,  but  the 
result  of  calm,  deliberate  study  of  the  laws  of  vital 
action,  like  all  the  rest  of  his  surgery;  there  was  as 
much  of  John  Hunter  in  it  as  in  any  action  of  John 
Hunter's  life." 

In  the  same  address  Dr.  Kimball  says: 
"It  is  claimed,  and  justly,  I  suppose,  that  he  was  the 
first  to  perform  staphyloraphy  in  this  country.  As  an 
operator,  he  was  cautious  and  painstaking,  and  is  said 
never  to  have  lost  a  patient  from  hemorrhage,  either 
primary  or  secondary.  His  ingenuity  and  manual 
adroitness  are  especially  deserving  of  notice  on  account 
of  his  introduction  of  a  new  method  for  reducing  dis- 
locations of  the  hip  joint  by  what  is  known  as  the 
manoeuvre  system,  'which  is  as  useful  as  it  is  simple,  and 
as  scientific  as  the  principle  of  flexion  and  leverage,  on 
which  it  depends.' 

"The  incident  by  which  Dr.  Smith  came  into  posses- 
sion of  a  clew  to  this  important  discovery  is  but  another 
illustration  of  the  truth  already  declared,  that  the  most 
beneficial  results  to  mankind  have  been  those  which 
have  been  educed  from  the  slightest  circumstance, 
which  the  thoughtless  might  consider  a  mere  trifle  or 
accident.     This  fact,  as  related  by  the  late  Professor 


1 1 6  Life  and  Letters 


A.  B.  Crosby,  is  as  follows:  'While  residing  at  Cornish 
he  had  a  friend  who  was  a  sea-captain,  and  who,  on 
returning  from  foreign  voyages  was  wont  to  relate  to 
him  whatever  of  interest  in  a  medical  way  he  might 
have  chanced  to  observe  while  abroad.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  told  Dr.  Smith  that  on  his  previous  voyage  one 
of  the  sailors  dislocated  his  hip.  There  being  no  sur- 
geon on  board,  the  captain  tried,  but  in  vain,  to  reduce 
it.  The  man  was  accordingly  placed  in  a  hammock 
with  the  dislocation  unreduced.  During  a  great  storm 
the  sufferer  was  thrown  from  the  hammock  to  the 
floor,  striking  violently  on  the  knee  of  the  affected  side. 
On  examination,  it  was  found  that  in  the  fall  the  hip 
had  somehow  been  reduced.  This  interested  Dr.  Smith 
wonderfully,  and  he  questioned  the  narrator  again  and 
again  as  to  the  exact  position  of  the  thigh,  the  knee,  and 
the  leg  at  the  time  of  the  fall.' 

"From  a  careful  study  of  'this  apparently  insignifi- 
cant circumstance,'  Dr.  Smith  demonstrated  the  reduc- 
ing of  dislocation  of  the  hip  by  the  'manoeuvre 
method,'  so  called,  now  almost  the  only  one  resorted 
to. 

The  Medical  School  at  Yale  continued  to  grow  in 
reputation  and  in  numbers  during  these  the  busiest 
years  of  the  life  of  Nathan  Smith.  In  the  ledger  he 
kept  in  1821  are  notes  of  some  of  his  lectures,  which 
show  his  extreme  care  in  giving  instruction,  as  likewise 
his  own  steady  growth  in  knowledge  and  experience, 
preparing  him  to  write  for  the  world  his  invaluable 
essays  on  fevers,  necrosis,  etc.,  which,  according  to 
scientific  men  of  to-day,  marked  him  as  a  hundred  years 


of  Nathan  Smith 


117 


ahead  of  his  times.  In  the  same  ledger  are  recorded 
the  following  names  of  the  medical  students  of  Yale  in 
1 82 1  and  1822.  The  accompanying  photograph  is 
from  the  original  ticket  to  Dr.  Smith's  lectures,  of  Dr. 
Elijah  Bishop,  one  of  the  students  of  1821. 

From  Dr.  Smith's  ledger,  kept  at  New  Haven  in 
1 82 1  and  1822,  the  following  lists  of  students'  names 
are  taken. 


Benj.  Welch  Jr. 
Timothy  Dimock. 
H.  Everitt. 
Solyman  Russell. 

Heminway. 

Miller. 

Case. 

George  W.  Walcott. 
D.  S.  Hart. 
Charles  Smith. 
George  Gary. 
Joseph  G.  Knapp. 
Asahel  Jones. 
Edward  Dickinson. 
Horatio  N.  Fenn. 


Edward  York. 
John  A.  Paine. 
William  Powell. 
Amos  W.  Gates. 
Charles  Hooker. 
Increase  Harrison. 
Wyllys  Woodruff. 
J.  B.  Irving. 
George  Taylor. 
Ephraim  Little. 
Norman  Bull. 
Henry  Holmes. 
B.  Mawry. 
Eben  West. 
Edward  Leffingwell. 


Catalogue   of  Students   in   1822,   Who  Have    Taken 

Tickets. 


Thomas  A.  Dutton. 

Joseph  Camp. 

Henry  Hewitt. 

Henry  Lee. 

Samuel  H.  P.  Lee,  Junr. 


Alexander  Wolcott. 
Thomas  Wilbur. 
Benj.  B.  Coit. 
Z.  W.  Bingham. 
Abraham  L.  Smyth. 


n8 


Life  and  Letters 


John  H.  Arnold. 
Datin  Williams. 
William  O.  Talcott. 
Chester  Hamlin. 
Garry  H.  Minor. 
Ulysses  W.  Mather. 
H.  Cleveland. 
Samuel  W.  Pratt. 
Asa  H.  King. 
E.  S.  Trowbridge. 
Titus  C.  Pratt. 
Samuel  D.  Carver. 
Chester  Griggs. 
Nelson  Carpenter. 
Alden  L.  Skinner. 
A.  P.  Beers. 
Edward  P.  Terry. 
Gustavus  A.  Rogers. 
Lemuel  Wick. 
Curtis  Prentice. 
Sheldon  Lemon. 
Samuel  Woodruff. 
Isaac  Beers. 


Theodore  Gilbert. 
Asa  Witter. 
J.  G.  Pierce. 
W.  H.  Cogswell. 
William  H.  Huggem. 
Thomas  H.  Klien. 
Walter  H.  Olcott. 
Robert  G.  Huntington. 
Samuel  W.  Brown. 
Earl  Loomis. 
Elijah  Bishop. 
J.  P.  Haynes. 
William  Henry  Cleveland. 
Richard  H.  Eastman. 
D.  B.  Shelton. 
Samuel  McClellan. 
Henry  B.  Porter. 
Charles  Rowland. 
B.  F.  Cleaveland. 
Solomon  P.  Cushman. 
Orson  Osborn. 
Samuel  W.  Gaylord. 
Thomas  O.  H.  Carpenter. 


Although  Dr.  Smith  was  doubtless  free  from  par- 
tiality for  one  son  above  another,  it  is  quite  clear  that 
from  the  time  "Ryno"  passed  the  fine  examination  in 
arithmetic  at  Hanover  through  the  period  when  he 
stood  one  of  the  first  in  his  class  at  Yale,  the  father's 
natural  pride  continued  to  grow  and  centre  around  this 
talented  son  who  seemed  to  have  inherited  many  of 
his  own  tastes  for  the  medical  profession  and  who 


Mrs.  Frances  (Montesque  Buchanan  Allen)  Penniman 

The  mother  of  Mrs.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith 
Portrait  by  Copley  when  she  was  nine  years  old 


of  Nathan  Smith  HQ 

showed  much  perseverance  in  making  progress  under 
difficulties. 

Solon  had  married  early  and  was  practicing  medicine 
in  Sutton,  Mass.,  James  Morven  was  but  fifteen  years 
of  age,  and  John  Derby  was  only  a  little  lad  of  eight 
years  when  Nathan  Ryno  Smith  received  the  degree  of 
M.D.  from  Yale  in  1820. 

Soon  after  graduation  in  medicine,  Dr.  N.  R.  Smith 
removed  to  Burlington,  Vt.,  and  there  married  Juliette 
Octavia,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Jabez  Penniman.  Mrs. 
Nathan  Ryno  Smith  was  a  woman  of  beautiful  char- 
acter and  strong  personality.  Her  mother  and  grand- 
mother were  quite  noted  in  Revolutionary  days,  the 
mother  before  her  marriage  to  Dr.  Perriman  having 
been  the  second  wife  and  widow  of  General  Ethan 
Allen,  and  the  grandmother,  after  the  death  of  Monte 
Montesque,  having  married  the  well-known  Tory, 
Crean  Brush.  The  photographs  of  their  interesting 
portraits  are  here  given. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
impulse  given  by  the  elder  Dr.  Smith  toward  advance- 
ment in  the  knowledge  of  medicine  and  surgery  had 
extended  throughout  the  country,  and  the  necessity  for 
good  medical  schools  began  to  be  felt  in  many  states. 

The  University  of  Maryland  was  first  to  follow 
Dartmouth  and  established  its  school  in  1807.  Then, 
in  rapid  succession  during  the  next  ten  years,  five  other 
medical  schools  sprang  into  existence,  headed  by  that 
of  New  Haven  in  18 13. 

According  to  Professor  Benjamin  Silliman:  "In 
order  of  time  the  Medical  Institute  of  Yale  College 


120  Life  and  Letters 


was  the  sixth  established  in  the  United  States.  The 
medical  schools  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and 
at  Columbia  College  were  instituted  in  1768;  that  at 
Harvard  in  1782;  at  Dartmouth  in  1798;  and  in  the 
University  of  Maryland  in  1808.  But  prior  to  18 10, 
Columbia  had  sent  out  only  35  graduates  in  medicine, 
and  from  18 10  to  i860  none.  Harvard  graduated 
only  54  students  [59  according  to  recent  catalogues] 
prior  to  18 13,  when  Yale  came  into  the  field." 

Bowdoin's  medical  department  at  Brunswick,  Me., 
was  started  by  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  in  1821  and  a  few 
months  later  the  University  of  Vermont  established  its 
medical  department  at  Burlington  and  called  to  the 
Professorship  of  Surgery  and  Anatomy,  Dr.  Nathan 
Ryno  Smith,  through  whose  exertions,  aided  by  those 
of  his  father,  the  school  was  organized. 

While  still  faithfully  discharging  his  duties  at  Yale 
and  at  Bowdoin,  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  visited  the  Bur- 
lington school  and  not  only  delivered  courses  of  lectures 
there,  but  by  constant  correspondence  with  his  son,  gave 
it  the  benefit  of  his  wisdom  and  experience,  thus,  as  the 
colleague  of  his  son  in  the  enterprise,  aiding  in  the 
establishment  of  a  fourth  medical  school  in  New 
England. 


Mrs.  Margaret  (Schoolcraft)  Montesque  Wall 

The  grandmother  of  Mrs.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith 
Portrait  by  Copley 


CHAPTER  FIFTEENTH 

Three  interesting  letters  from  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  to 
Dr.  Shattuck  will  give  an  idea  of  his  wonderfully  busy- 
life.  Writing  from  Brunswick,  Me.,  and  from  New 
Haven,  he  mentions  the  completion  of  his  Treatise  on 
Fevers  and  also  speaks  of  his  intention  of  spending 
some  weeks  in  Burlington,  Vt.,  where  he  will  deliver  a 
course  of  lectures,  which  he  hopes  may  be  the  last  he 
will  be  called  upon  to  give  outside  of  New  Haven. 

From  Brunswick,  April  18,  1823,  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 
writes  to  Dr.  Shattuck  in  Boston : 

"Dear  Sir: 

I  left  a  chaise  at  Middletown  in  Connecticut  with 
orders  to  send  it  by  water  to  Boston,  and  directed  that 
it  should  be  sent  to  your  care.  If  it  arrives  I  wish  you 
to  turn  it  over  to  James  Mann  &  Co.,  India  street,  with 
orders  to  send  it  on  by  some  of  our  coasters  who  ply 
between  Brunswick  and  Boston;  or,  if  it  is  more  con- 
venient to  send  it  to  Bath,  it  will  answer  my  purpose. 
If  there  are  any  charges  from  Middletown  to  Boston 
I  will  thank  you  to  pay  it.  Send  the  bill  in  a  letter  to 
me  and  I  will  pay  it  to  you. 

Our  course  of  lectures  go  on  very  well  and  I  believe 
will  be  very  satisfactory  to  the  class,  which  is  without 
exception  the  best  class  of  medical  students  I  have  seen 
together. 

I  have  written  out  a  treatise  on  Typhus  Fever  and 


122  Life  and  Letters 


Mr.  Bell  is  copying  it  for  the  press.  I  shall  also,  before 
I  leave  this,  finish  a  book  on  Surgery  which  will  con- 
tain about  two  hundred  pages,  which  I  shall  publish  in 
the  course  of  the  present  year. 

Dr.  Wells  gives  a  very  good  course  on  Anatomy,  and 
is  popular  with  the  class.  I  think  the  school  is  now 
established.  The  next  year  will  decide  the  fate  of  the 
school  at  Burlington.  We  made  a  very  good  beginning 
last  year,  and  if  no  untoward  circumstance  occurs  I 
think  it  will  live.  I  think  the  four  schools  which  I  have 
been  concerned  in  bringing  forward  in  addition  [to 
Harvard],  will  be  as  much  as  New  England  will  bear, 
and  I  think  there  will  not  be  too  many.  Every  State 
should  have  one  medical  school  and  no  more.  A  medi- 
cal school  does  more  towards  ameliorating  the  condi- 
tion of  mankind  than  any  other  institution,  as  the 
knowledge  acquired  in  them  is  of  more  practical 
importance. 

Professor  Wells  and  Mr.  Bell  send  their  best 
respects  to  you  and  your  family. 

I  am,  with  great  esteem, 

Your  Friend  and  Humble  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith/' 

A  few  weeks  later  he  writes  to  the  same  friend: 

"Dear  Sir: 

Your  letter  respecting  the  chaise  has  been  received. 
I  have  enclosed  you  five  dollars  for  the  freight  to 
Boston. 


Nathan  Smith  123 


I  have  still  another  favor  to  ask.  Dr.  Wells  informs 
me  that  you  have  Cooper's  newly  invented  instrument 
for  extracting  the  stone  through  the  urethra.  We  have 
a  case  in  this  village  which  I  think  is  a  proper  one  for 
such  an  instrument,  and  wish,  if  you  are  willing,  that 
you  would  send  it  to  me  by  the  captain  of  the  vessel 
who  may  bring  my  chaise  and  I  will  immediately  make 
use  of  it  and  send  it  safely  to  you.  I  have  two  objects 
in  view,  one  to  relieve  the  patient,  and  the  other  to 
show  it  to  Mr.  M.  Eastman,  a  man  of  great  ingenuity, 
who,  I  think,  having  seen  one,  can  make  another  like 
it.  If  the  chaise  is  already  sent,  and  if  you  should  be 
willing  to  oblige  me,  I  wish  you  to  send  it  by  the  first 
safe  hand,  and  if  you  have  an  opportunity  to  send  it  to 
Portland  sooner  than  to  Brunswick,  please  to  send  it 
to  the  care  of  Dr.  Merrill  of  Portland,  as  I  am  going 
to  Portland  to-morrow  and  shall  probably  be  detained 
there  the  whole  week  as  a  witness  in  a  case  of  alleged 
murder.  If  any  gentleman  was  coming  to  Portland  in 
the  stage  who  would  be  willing  to  take  charge  of  it,  I 
can  receive  it  there. 

I  am,  with  sentiments  of  great  esteem, 

Your  obedient  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Brunswick,  Sunday,  May  5,  1823. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

"New  Haven,  August  16,  1824. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  sent  you  a  manuscript  translation  of  a  French 


124  Life  and  Letters 


work  on  the  diseases  of  the  ear,  by  Dr.  J.  Bell.  I  was 
to  have  brought  it  with  me  last  winter,  but  owing  to  my 
present  illness  I  did  not,  and  it  escaped  my  recollection 
till  my  return  home  and  till  I  happened  to  find  it  in  my 
house.  It  was  Dr.  Bell's  request  to  have  it  sent  to  you 
for  your  opinion  of  the  work,  as  to  the  propriety  of 
printing  it,  &c.  I  wish  you  would  peruse  it  and  then 
give  it  to  Dr.  Wells  with  your  opinion  of  it  and  request 
him  to  send  it  to  Dr.  Bell  by  a  safe  conveyance. 

I  have  just  located  myself  in  the  Medical  House 
which  is  fitted  up  in  good  style  and  makes  me  a  very 
commodious  house  for  my  family.  I  have  agreed  to 
go  to  Burlington  for  six  weeks,  which  will  be  the  last 
time  probably  that  I  shall  leave  New  Haven  for  the 
purpose  of  lecturing  in  any  other  place. 

N.  B.  The  direction  on  the  wrapper  for  Dr.  Bell 
is  not  correct  now  as  he  does  not  live  where  he  did 
when  that  was  written.  I  presume  Dr.  Wells  will  know 
how  to  direct  to  him. 

I  am  with  esteem, 

Your  obedient  Servant, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

The  next  letter  in  point  of  date  from  the  elder  Dr. 
Smith  to  Dr.  Shattuck  is  the  following,  written  from 
Solon's  house  at  Sutton,  and  is  too  amusing  to  be 
omitted  from  the  collection.  Truly  the  care  of  clothes 
seems  to  have  given  as  much  trouble  in  old  days  as  it 
does  now. 


of  Nathan  Smith  125 

"Sutton,  June  29,  1825. 
Dear  Sir: 

By  mistake  your  folks  put  up  one  of  your  white 
collars  and  vests  with  my  clothes,  and  by  the  same 
chapter  of  mistakes,  I  believe  one  of  my  vests  with 
three  pair  of  linen  socks  were  left  at  your  house.  I  had 
the  misfortune  to  leave  your  vest  at  Black's  Tavern  in 
Providence,  but  have  ordered  it  to  be  brought  to  my 
son's  in  Sutton  and  from  there  to  be  sent  safely  to  you. 

Now  if  my  clothes  should  be  found  in  your  house,  I 
wish  when  you  have  a  convenient  opportunity  you 
would  send  them  to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Gardner. 

Yours  with  esteem, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

Anecdotes  of  Dr.  Smith's  kindness  and  humor  are 
still  current  among  some  of  the  families  of  New 
Haven,  where  his  visits  were  looked  forward  to  with 
eagerness  not  entirely  due  to  hope  of  relief  from  pain. 
A  descendant  of  the  family  of  Mr.  Woolsey,  who  so 
cordially  received  Dr.  Smith  into  his  household  upon 
his  arrival  in  New  Haven,  remembers  hearing  many 
amusing  tales  of  Dr.  Smith  from  her  mother,  and 
says  that  it  would  be  impossible  now  for  any  physician 
to  hold  toward  his  patients  the  relation  then  sustained 
by  Dr.  Smith  to  those  who  sought  his  assistance. 

On  every  conceivable  topic  his  opinion  was  asked 
and  looked  upon  as  the  ultimate  authority,  and  his 
humorous   accounts  of  happenings   of  the   day  often 


126  Life  and  Letters 


helped  as  much  as  his  prescriptions  in  restoring  his 
patients  to  health.  His  kindness  to  the  poor  took 
many  forms,  most  frequently  that  of  professional 
attentions  and  ministrations  entirely  without  hope  of 
reward. 

He  was  called  one  day  to  a  neighboring  town  where 
an  explosion  had  taken  place,  so  shattering  a  poor 
man's  leg  as  to  require  its  amputation.  The  $50  fee 
demanded  by  the  doctor  having  been  collected  from 
the  crowd  of  sympathizing  bystanders,  the  operation 
was  performed.  At  its  close  Dr.  Smith  handed  to  the 
patient  the  money,   duly  counted,  and  rode  away. 

Another  tale  related  of  him  shows  not  only  his 
pleasure  in  a  harmless  joke  but  his  entire  absence  of 
affectation,  with  a  most  pleasing  modesty  in  reference 
to  his  own  reputation.  "One  day  he  was  riding  through 
Guilford,  a  few  miles  east  of  New  Haven,  when  a 
woman  came  out  of  a  house  and  asked  if  he  knew  Dr. 
Smith,  and  if  he  were  in  New  Haven,  and  explained 
that  there  was  a  case  there  requiring  his  attention.  He 
inquired  the  particulars,  and  said:  'I  know  Dr.  Smith 
very  well ;  he  is  not  in  New  Haven,  but  I  can  attend  to 
this  case  just  as  well  as  he  can.'  He  did  so,  performed 
the  necessary  operation,  and  rode  away  without  telling 
who  he  was." 

His  direct  fashion  of  saying  things  is  illustrated  in 
the  way  in  which  he  treated  the  case  of  a  student  by 
the  name  of  Lincoln,  who  came  to  Dr.  Smith  for 
medicine  soon  after  his  family  had  joined  him  where 
he  was  then  living  in  Wall  Street.  The  doctor's 
daughter  was  frequently  seen  by  young  Lincoln  when 


of  Nathan  Smith  I2J 

he  called,  and  the  medicine,  strange  to  say,  instead  of 
curing  him,  seemed  to  create  a  necessity  for  more. 
Finally  the  doctor  said  to  him  one  day,  "I  believe, 
Lincoln,  you  don't  want  any  more  medicine.  It's  my 
daughter  you  want."  The  doctor's  diagnosis  proved 
to  be  correct  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  married  to  Miss 
Gratia  Eliza,  Dr.  Smith's  oldest  living  daughter,  imme- 
diately upon  the  young  man's  graduation. 

It  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of  the  illness  to  which 
Dr.  Smith  alluded  in  one  of  the  letters  just  recorded, 
that  the  commodious  and  comfortable  quarters  fitted 
out  for  him  and  his  family  in  the  Medical  Building  at 
New  Haven,  should  offer  for  him  attractions  stronger 
than  he  had  ever  before  felt  for  a  home,  and  that,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-five  years,  he  began  to  long  for  a  rest 
from  his  journeys  and  strenuous  efforts  in  behalf  of 
distant  medical  schools. 

In  this  wonderful  age  of  rapid  transit,  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  us  to  realize  the  magnitude  of  the  work 
accomplished  by  that  great  man  of  a  hundred  years 
ago,  now  that  distance  is  so  nearly  annihilated  by  im- 
mense floating  palaces  crossing  vast  oceans  in  a  few 
days,  while  long  trains  drawn  by  steam  or  electric  power 
take  travelers  from  place  to  place  at  the  rate  of  fifty 
or  sixty  miles  an  hour,  broad  rivers  forming  no  obsta- 
cle to  their  speed.  Men  are  now  even  successfully 
undertaking  to  fly  through  the  air,  and  it  would  seem 
as  though  the  Prophet  Nahum  had  looked  far  beyond 
the  future  of  Nineveh,  and  even  to  the  automobiles  of 
our  day,  when  he  said:  "The  chariots  shall  be  with 
flaming  torches   .    .    .   the  chariots  shall  rage  in  the 


128  Life  and  Letters 


streets,  they  shall  jostle  one  against  another  in  the 
broad  ways:  they  shall  seem  like  torches,  they  shall 
run  like  the  lightnings."  And  doctors  of  our  day  are 
not  behind  other  men  in  the  use  of  these  cars  which 
run  like  lightnings. 

In  Dr.  Smith's  time,  a  little  sailing  vessel  took  many 
weeks  to  bear  him  across  the  Atlantic  to  what  was 
then  a  far-away  land  which  he  visited  in  pursuit  of 
knowledge.  Slow  stages  took  him  to  distant  places  by 
land,  and  small  boats  by  water,  and  for  visits  to 
patients  nearer  home  his  only  dependence  was  his 
one-horse  chaise  or  his  faithful  horse.  It  seems 
almost  incredible  that  under  such  circumstances,  while 
his  home  was  at  Cornish,  he  could  have  successfully 
established  a  medical  school  at  Hanover,  and  that 
later,  while  living  at  Hanover,  he  should  have  helped 
to  found  the  Yale  School  and  have  delivered  lectures 
there  during  four  winters  before  moving  his  family  to 
New  Haven,  and  further,  while  still  holding  his  pro- 
fessorship at  Yale,  aided  in  establishing  the  medical 
schools  at  Brunswick  and  Burlington.  It  must  be 
remembered,  too,  that  founding  these  medical  schools, 
and  delivering  a  vast  number  of  lectures,  were  only 
a  part  of  his  achievements;  for  he  visited  many  meet- 
ings of  State  Legislatures  in  behalf  of  his  colleges, 
while  his  medical  and  surgical  practice  extended  to 
almost  every  part  of  New  England.  His  wonderful 
writings,  too,  while  not  imposing  in  point  of  number, 
are  reckoned  among  the  classics  of  his  profession  and 
are  still  instructive  even  in  this  advanced  age. 

During  Dr.  Smith's  experience  as  a  teacher  of  medi- 


of  Nathan  Smith  I2Q 


cine  he  gave,  according  to  Dr.  Hubbard,  some  forty- 
two  general  courses  in  the  thirty-two  years  from  1797 
to  1828,  giving  instruction  in  about  a  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  special  courses.  Dr.  Welch  tells  us  that 
the  period  of  greatest  prosperity  of  the  Medical  School 
at  Yale  until  quite  recent  years  was  the  first  two  decades 
of  its  existence,  this  being  precisely  the  time  of  Dr. 
Smith's  connection  with  the  school. 

Varied  and  widespread  as  were  the  interests  of  Dr. 
Smith,  it  is  gratifying  to  those  connected  with  the 
Medical  School  at  Yale  to  feel  that,  at  heart,  he  must 
have  cherished  a  special  affection  for  their  institution, 
for  at  his  death  he  bequeathed  to  it  his  library. 

Dr.  Nathan  Smith  ranks  second  in  time  among 
ovariotomists,  having  performed  an  original  operation 
at  Norwich,  Vt.,  July  5,  1821,  with  no  knowledge  of 
McDowell's  operation.  Out  of  thirty  cases  of  lithot- 
omy, only  three  were  fatal.  He  lost  no  patient  of 
hemorrhage  consequent  upon  an  operation,  and  he  first 
in  America  performed  the  operation  of  staphyloraphy. 

"In  reference  to  necrosis,  amputation  of  the  thigh, 
reduction  of  dislocation  of  the  hip,  and  treatment  of 
fractures,  his  principles  and  devices  were  new  and 
valuable." 

Professor  Knight  of  New  Haven  was  assuredly  not 
exaggerating  when  he  wrote  in  1829,  that  "to  Dr. 
Smith  is  justly  due  the  credit  of  having  introduced  and 
diffused  over  a  large  part  of  New  England,  the  most 
correct  practice,  of  all  the  celebrated  surgeons  of  the 
last  and  present  century." 


CHAPTER  SIXTEENTH 

Dr.  Smith's  interest  in  establishing  schools  of  medi- 
cine did  not  subside  with  creating  the  four  schools  in 
New  England,  for  his  services  were  deeply  enlisted  in 
the  founding  of  the  Jefferson  Medical  School  of  Phila- 
delphia, in  1825,  by  his  son,  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith, 
and  Dr.  George  McClellan. 

They  depended  much  upon  his  influence  and  splen- 
did judgment  and  turned  to  Dr.  Smith  and  his  friend, 
Dr.  Shattuck,  for  contributions  of  articles  for  the 
American  Review,  a  publication  issued  from  Philadel- 
phia in  1825. 

The  Jefferson  Medical  School  under  the  auspices  of 
the  two  young  professors  made  a  brilliant  opening  with 
1 10  or  120  students,  and  two  if  not  more  of  the  number 
attained  a  world-wide  reputation  in  their  profession. 
"One  of  these  was  the  illustrious  head  of  American 
surgery,  Professor  Samuel  D.  Gross,  and  another  was 
Dr.  Washington  L.  Atlee,  the  distinguished  ovarioto- 
mist,  whose  labors  in  the  advancement  of  American 
gynaecology  are  everywhere  held  in  deserved  honor." 

Although  great  credit  for  the  success  of  the  Jefferson 
School  was  due  to  the  young  Dr.  McClellan's  skill  and 
energy,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  help  and  encourage- 
ment of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  back  of  his  son  (Professor 
of  Anatomy) ,  did  much  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
work,  and  this  again  shows  how  widely  his  influence 
already  extended. 


Nathan  Smith  131 


That  his  stupendous  professional  work  was  accom- 
plished while  burdened  with  unusual  family  cares  and 
great  difficulties  in  financial  arrangements,  will  be 
shown  by  the  following  letters : 

"New  Haven,  January  6,  1826. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  want  three  hundred  dollars  to  enable  my  son  at 
Sutton  to  pay  for  a  house  and  land  which  he  has  pur- 
chased, and  if  you  will  loan  that  sum  to  him  and  me 
with  our  joint  security,  I  will  see  it  forthcoming  to  you 
in  the  month  of  June  next.  I  have  about  six  hundred 
dollars  in  endorsed  notes  at  Brunswick  and  shall  solicit 
Dr.  Wells,  when  he  goes  to  Brunswick  again,  to  get 
it  for  me.  I  think  one  half  will  be  paid  this  winter, 
but  if  it  should  not,  I  can  make  up  the  deficiency. 

We  have  a  pretty  respectable  class  this  winter,  both 
as  to  numbers  and  deportment,  and  think  we  shall 
retrieve  what  we  have  lost  in  character  from  want  of 
subjects,  &c.  Since  I  have  made  known  my  determina- 
tion not  to  go  abroad  any  more  to  give  lectures,  my 
business  in  this  city  has  increased  and  is  increasing.  I 
have  had  a  good  deal  of  surgery  this  winter,  a  part  of 
which  has  been  before  the  class. 

When  I  was  at  your  house  I  left  there  a  report  of 

the  trial  between  Hawks  and  .     Some  of  our 

fraternity  here  having  seen  some  sparring  about  the 
case  wish  to  see  the  report,  and  if  you  can  put  your 
hands  on  it,  will  thank  you  to  send  it  by  the  mail  or 
otherwise.  For  myself  I  care  very  little  about  it  or 
what  the  newspaper  folks  say  about  it. 


132  Life  and  Letters 


I  believe  N.  R.  is  getting  on  very  well  at  Philadel- 
phia. They  have  no  students  who  pay  $15  each, 
which  is  much  better  than  I  expected.  John  Derby 
goes  to  a  Latin  school  in  this  town,  and  is  a  fine  scholar 
and  bids  fair  to  make  a  most  excellent  speaker.  I 
calculate  to  have  him  enter  college  in  a  year  from  next 
Commencement.  Some  time  between  now  and  that 
time,  when  your  George  is  at  home,  should  like  to  have 
him  spend  a  few  weeks  with  you. 

The  failure  of  Eagle  Bank,  has  given  a  great  shock 
to  New  Haven,  and  though  I  did  not  lose  but  twenty 
dollars  which  happened  to  be  in  the  bank  at  that  time, 
yet  it  has  hurt  me  much  more  than  that  by  making  my 
debtors  poor.  Upon  the  whole  it  has  been  one  of  the 
most  scandalous  transactions  that  could  be  conceived, 
and  all  perpetrated  by  a  single  individual  who,  so  far, 
appears  to  be  perfectly  indifferent  as  to  its  conse- 
quences.19 

I  am,  with  sentiments  of  esteem, 

Nathan  Smith. 
Dr.  Geo.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston." 

19  Happily  the  verdict  of  later  years  was  such  as  to  make  these 
statements  seem  erroneous  as  far  as  moral  obliquity  on  the  part  of  the 
president  was  concerned.  Dexter's  Biographies  give  this  account  of 
him: 

"George  Hoadly,  born  December  15,  1781.  After  graduating  [at 
Yale  in  1801]  he  studied  law  in  New  Haven  with  the  Hon.  Charles 
Chauncey,  and  from  March,  1803,  to  Commencement,  1806,  held  the 
office  of  tutor  in  the  college.  Editor  in  Washington,  later  returned  to 
New  Haven  and  entered  on  practice  of  law  with  promise  of  unusual 
success.  Mr.  William  W.  Woolsey,  a  retired  merchant  of  New  York, 
who   had    settled   in    New   Haven,   became   much   interested    in    Mr. 


of  Nathan  Smith  133 

"New  Haven,  April  22,  1826. 
Dear  Sir: 

In  my  letter  to  you  last  winter  respecting  my  dues  at 
Bowdoin  College,  I  made  a  mistake  of  two  hundred 
dollars,  which  leaves  me  but  $400  due  there,  and  fromf 
a  letter  I  received  from  Mr.  Cleaveland  some  time 
since,  I  fear  there  will  be  more  delay  about  paying  that 
than  I  expected.  I  have  written  to  Mr.  Cleaveland 
stating  that  I  should  expect  the  notes  to  be  put  in  suit 
immediately  or  that  the  Board  approve  the  debt  and 
pay  me  the  money.  The  notes  are  given  to  the  Faculty 
of  the  College.  What  they  will  do  about  it  I  do  not 
know;  be  that  as  it  may,  I  can  pay  the  money  to  you  if 
necessary,  about,  or  not  long  after,  the  time  proposed. 

Please  to  give  my  very  greatest  respects  to  Mrs. 
Derby  and  accept  a  large  portion  of  my  respect  and 
esteem  for  yourself  and  family. 

Yours,  &c, 

Nathan  Smith. 

Dr.  G.  C.  Shattuck,  Boston. 

I  think  I  shall  visit  Boston  in  the  month  of  June  or 
July  on  business  in  that  quarter.    I  have  very  flattering 

Hoadly,  and,  as  president  of  the  Eagle  Bank,  which  was  incorporated 
in  1811,  and  which  commanded  a  large  share  of  public  confidence,  he 
unhappily  persuaded  his  young  friend  to  give  up  his  profession  and 
become  cashier  of  the  bank.  Mr.  Woolsey  returned  to  New  York  in 
1815  and  Mr.  Hoadly  succeeded  to  the  presidency,  which  he  held  until 
the  disastrous  failure  of  the  bank  in  September,  1825.  The  president 
and  directors  had  loaned  on  insufficient  security  an  amount  equal  to 
the  entire  resources  of  the  bank,  and  inevitably  great  indignation  was 


134  Life  and  Letters 


accounts  from  the  new  school  in  Philadelphia.  They 
have  a  charter  sanctioned  by  act  of  the  Legislature  and 
passed  into  a  law,  so  that  the  old  school20  cannot  put 
them  down  as  they  intended.  They  had  120  students 
last  winter  and  I  think  may  have  200  the  next  term. 
I  have  reason  to  believe  that  Ryno  is  gaining  in  reputa- 
tion. Solon,  I  believe,  is  doing  a  handsome  share  of 
business." 

felt  toward  the  president,  though  it  was  afterwards  conceded  by  most 
witnesses  that  his  error  was  one  of  judgment  only,  and  that  he  derived 
no  profit  from  the  losses  of  others.  Mayor  of  New  Haven,  1822-1826. 
In  1829  settled  in  Cleveland,  and  had  a  useful  and  honorable  career 
there.  He  was  remarkable  for  evenness  of  temper  and  kindliness  of 
disposition.  Married  in  New  Haven,  November  8,  1819,  to  Mary 
Anne,  eldest  child  of  W.  W.  Woolsey  and  Elizabeth  (Dwight)  Wool- 
sey  (sister  of  President  Woolsey  and  niece  of  President  Dwight)." 
20  The  Medical  School  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


CHAPTER  SEVENTEENTH 

The  success  which  attended  the  opening  of  the  Jef- 
ferson Medical  School  was  phenomenal  and  young  Dr. 
Smith  showed  no  flagging  of  enthusiasm,  though  bur- 
dened with  work  and  responsibilities.  Like  his  father, 
he  did  not  regard  the  duties  of  his  professorship  of 
Anatomy  as  a  reason  for  not  taking  up  other  useful 
work,  and  he  became  the  founder  of  the  Philadelphia 
Monthly  Journal  of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  and  asso- 
ciate editor  of  the  Medical  Review,  afterwards  merged 
with  the  American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences. 
But  in  1827,  after  two  years  of  work  in  Philadelphia, 
his  ambition  was  aroused  by  an  invitation  from  the 
School  of  Medicine  of  the  University  of  Maryland  to 
become  its  Professor  of  Anatomy,  of  which  chair  he 
effected  an  exchange  with  Dr.  Davidge,  before  the 
lecture  season  began,  for  that  of  Surgery. 

He  and  his  father  recognized  that  far  greater 
advantages  presented  themselves  for  his  future  in  this 
more  important  branch  in  the  older  school  already 
holding  a  "wide  celebrity  throughout  the  South  and 
West."  Therefore  Dr.  N.  R.  Smith  concluded  to 
sever  his  connection  with  the  Jefferson  School  and 
accept  the  appointment.  Accordingly,  early  in  the 
autumn  of  that  year  he  repaired  to  Baltimore  and 
made  ready  to  deliver  his  first  course  of  lectures,  which 
was  attended  by  a  very  large  class. 

By  this  move  of  N.  R.  Smith  to  a  southern  city  it  is 


136  Life  and  Letters 


easy  to  trace  the  ever  widening  benefit  to  the  country  at 
large  of  the  magnificent  work  of  the  first  Nathan  Smith, 
whose  careful  and  splendid  training  in  medicine  and 
surgery  enabled  the  son  to  carry  to  a  still  more  remote 
neighborhood  some  of  the  wealth  of  wisdom  and  medi- 
cal knowledge  gathered  at  the  feet  of  his  distinguished 
father. 

Truly  the  father's  pride  must  have  been  more  than 
gratified  in  witnessing  the  steady  progress  towards 
fame  of  this  son  and  namesake,  even  if,  as  the  follow- 
ing letter  shows,  the  young  doctor  had  not  found  time 
to  write  to  him  for  some  weeks  after  his  removal  to 
Baltimore. 

It  is  pleasant  to  find  a  mention  of  each  of  the  four 
sons  of  Nathan  Smith,  in  this,  his  last  letter  to  Dr. 
Shattuck,  and  to  read  between  the  lines  of  the  peace 
which  was  evidently  crowning  his  life  of  labor. 
Although  still  teaching  and  writing  and  accomplishing 
as  much  in  a  quiet  way  as  in  any  year  of  his  life,  he  had 
ceased  his  tremendous  journeys  over  the  country  and, 
surrounded  by  his  wife  and  younger  children,  was 
enjoying  his  comfortable  home  life  at  New  Haven. 

"New  Haven,  December  8,  1827. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  the  5th  inst  has  been  received.  Mr. 
Hull  informed  me  by  letter  that  he  had  left  $150  with 
you  and  I  have  given  Mr.  Crenshaw,  my  son-in-law,  an 
order  to  receive  it.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  hear 
that  your  family  and  Mr.  Derby  are  in  good  health  and 
prosperity.     I  wish  very  much  to  visit  my  good  friends 


From  the  Miniature  of  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith 


of  Nathan  Smith  137 

at  Boston,  but  do  not  know  at  present  at  what  time  I 
shall  be  able  to  gratify  that  desire. 

My  family  are  all  well  who  are  now  with  me.  Laura 
is  on  a  visit  at  N.  H.  I  believe  Solon  is  getting  into 
considerable  repute  at  Sutton,  and  as  for  Ryno,  I  have 
not  heard  a  word  from  him  since  he  removed  from 
Philadelphia  to  Baltimore.  I  trust,  however,  that  he  is 
working  hard,  both  for  fame  and  money.  James  is 
still  with  me  and  will  probably  take  his  degree  in  the 
spring.  John  is  a  fine  boy  and  a  good  scholar;  he  will 
enter  college  next  Commencement. 

Our  school  flourishes  tolerably  well.  We  have  a 
class  of  90.  They  are  very  fine  young  men  and  appear 
better  than  any  class  previous.  My  health  has  been 
unusually  good  the  last  year  and  I  have  effected  as 
much,  perhaps,  as  I  have  ever  done  in  one  year. 
Respecting  my  Surgery,  I  have  written  a  considerable 
part  of  it  and  expect  to  get  through  it  the  next  summer. 
I  should  probably  have  accomplished  it  before,  but  have 
been  obliged  to  write  some  for  my  son's  journal  and 
several  essays  to  deliver  before  medical  meetings  &c. 

I  wish  you  to  give  my  very  great  regards  to  Mr. 
Derby,  and  remember  me  affectionately  to  Mrs.  Shat- 
tuck  and  other  members  of  your  family. 

From  your  friend, 

Nathan  Smith. 

George  C.  Shattuck,  M.D.,  Boston." 

Six  months  after  writing  the  last  recorded  letter  to 
Dr.  Shattuck,  in  July,   1828,  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  was 


138  Life  and  Letters 


suddenly  taken  severely  ill  with  a  trouble  which, 
although  short  in  duration,  left  him  weak  and  debili- 
tated. Dr.  Knight  of  Yale,  in  his  biographical  memoir 
of  Dr.  Smith,  says:  "From  this  state  his  friends  per- 
ceived with  alarm  that  he  did  not  entirely  recover.  He 
continued  to  be  weak,  with  occasional  attacks  of  illness, 
through  the  remainder  of  the  summer  and  autumnal 
months.  Though  enfeebled  in  body,  his  mind  retained 
its  usual  vigor  and  activity,  and  unwilling  to  yield  to 
what  he  probably  considered  a  trivial  complaint,  he 
continued,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  days,  his  labori- 
ous employments.  No  considerable  alteration  in  the 
state  of  his  health  appeared  until  about  four  weeks 
since  [early  in  January],  when  he  was  attacked  with  a 
severe  influenza.  This  was  accompanied  and  followed, 
by  a  painful  and  vertiginous  affection  of  the  head.  .   .   . 

"On  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  the  13th  inst.,  he  first 
perceived  a  slight  numbness  of  the  left  hand,  with  a 
trifling  indistinctness  in  his  articulation." 

This  condition  of  the  father  became  so  alarming  that 
it  was  considered  necessary  to  notify  the  two  sons  who 
were  living  at  a  distance  from  New  Haven,  and  in 
answer  to  the  sad  letter  of  one  of  his  sisters,  Dr.  N.  R. 
Smith  wrote  the  following  from  Baltimore. 

"Baltimore,  January  19,   1829. 
My  dear  sister: 

I  am  extremely  distressed  to  know  that  our  dear 
father  is  so  seriously  ill.  I  did  not  see  Dr.  Wells  till 
last  evening.     He  informed  me  of  papa's  illness,  but 


of  Nathan  Smith  13Q 

did  not  think  him  dangerously  sick.  I  flatter  myself, 
as  you  are  rather  timid,  you  may  be  more  alarmed  than 
there  is  occasion  for.  It  will  be  extremely  difficult  for 
me  to  leave  Baltimore  at  this  time,  but  nothing  shall 
keep  me  from  the  sick  bed  of  the  kindest,  the  best  of 
fathers;  I  shall  wait  one  day, — perhaps  two, — to 
arrange  business  which  I  cannot  honorably  neglect, 
hoping  also  to  receive  further  intelligence  from  you;  I 
shall  then  proceed  as  quickly  as  possible  to  New  Haven. 

If  my  dear  father  should,  in  his  illness,  feel  any 
solicitude  about  his  family,  tell  him  I  would  have  him 
dismiss  it  all.  Providence  has  placed  me  in  a  situation 
soon  to  be  able  to  take  his  place,  in  all  respects  in  rela- 
tion to  them.  My  home,  my  heart,  and  my  purse  will 
always  be  theirs,  but  I  trust  in  Heaven  that  he  may  be 
long  spared  to  us.  Tell  him  that  I  ask  his  forgiveness 
for  not  having  written  to  him  so  often  as  I  should  have 
done;  it  was  not  from  any  abatement  of  affection. 

Give  my  love  to  our  dear  mother  and  to  brothers  and 
sisters. 

Yours  most  affectionately, 

N.  R.  Smith. 

N.  B.  I  feel  somewhat  less  anxiety  because  I  think 
Dr.  Ives  would  have  written  to  me  had  he  thought  papa 
to  be  in  danger.  Should  papa's  situation  become  more 
alarming  before  I  see  him,  I  hope  that  he  may  be  made 
acquainted  with  his  situation,  and  pray  that  he  and  all 
his  may  be  resigned  to  the  will  of  Heaven. 

N.  R.  S." 


CHAPTER  EIGHTEENTH 

The  beloved  doctor  was  not  only  surrounded  by  his 
large  and  devoted  family  during  these  sad  days  of 
suffering  and  anxiety,  but  throughout  his  illness  he  was 
tenderly  watched  by  his  colleagues  and  their  families 
by  day  and  by  night.  Dr.  Reuben  D.  Mussey,  his  pupil 
and  successor  at  Dartmouth,  was  by  his  bedside  with 
kind  ministrations,  and  Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  the 
best  beloved  pupil  and  the  faithful  friend  of  his  life- 
time, came  from  Boston  to  see  him,  affording  him 
unspeakable  comfort  in  his  last  hours  by  promising  to 
assume  responsibility  for  the  education  of  his  youngest 
son,  John  Derby,  then  in  his  second  year  at  Yale — a 
promise  faithfully  performed. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  "these  incidents  may  carry 
back  our  thought  to  the  last  days  of  Socrates,  sur- 
rounded by  his  disciples,  ministering  consolation  and 
most  deeply  interested  in  his  fate."  If  this  be  true,  the 
contrast  in  the  two  scenes  must  also  be  recalled.  When 
Socrates  was  asked  by  his  pupils  for  his  last  legacy 
the  answer  came :  "If  you  take  good  care  of  yourselves, 
you  will  always  gratify  me  and  mine  most."  Could  Dr. 
Smith  have  uttered  a  last  message,  it  would  have  been  in 
the  doctrine  of  his  unselfish  life  and  in  the  words  of  his 
Saviour  he  would  have  said:  "This  is  my  command- 
ment that  ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you." 
Before  the  great  Socrates  in  facing  death  all  was  uncer- 


Nathan  Smith  141 


tainty  and  unrest,  for,  although  believing  in  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  he  had  for  his  comfort  only  the 
vagaries  and  superstitious  teachings  of  Greek  Philo- 
sophy; but  Nathan  Smith,  the  Christian  believer,  had 
for  his  support  the  firm  foundation  laid  for  his  faith  in 
the  blessed  Word  of  God,  and  its  precious  promises 
brought  to  his  last  hours  a  sense  of  perfect  peace  by  the 
assurance  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  of  happiness  in 
the  world  to  come. 

During  the  long  life  of  Dr.  Smith,  he  had  not  regu- 
larly connected  himself  with  any  particular  church, 
although  he  attended  service  always  and  had  the  high- 
est reverence  for  all  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
and  "had  expressed  to  a  friend  some  months  before  his 
illness,  his  full  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian 
religion."  On  its  consolations  he  seemed  to  rely  in 
these,  the  closing  scenes  of  his  life,  "requesting  the 
counsel  and  prayers  of  several  ministers  of  the 
Gospel." 

In  the  week  which  followed  the  letter  of  his  son, 
N.  R.  Smith,  there  was  no  abatement  of  the  dread 
disease,  the  "symptoms  of  paralysis  gradually  in- 
creased, until  the  morning  of  the  26th  instant  when  the 
powers  of  life  became  exhausted,  and  at  6  o'clock,  in 
the  67th  year  of  his  age,  he  slept  the  sleep  of  death." 

So  passed  from  the  field  of  its  earthly  labors,  the 
beautiful  spirit  of  the  man  who,  following  the  footsteps 
of  the  Master,  "went  about  doing  good,"  and,  like  the 
Divine  Healer,  made  the  blind  to  see,  the  deaf  to  hear, 
the  lame  to  walk,  and  who  preached  to  the  ignorant 
and  the  afflicted  the  great  Gospel  of  Healing. 


14.2  Life  and  Letters 


Nathan  Smith  left  this  world  a  poor  man,  but  who 
can  estimate  the  value  of  the  legacy  which  he  be- 
queathed to  Humanity,  for  its  price  was  far  above  that 
of  gold  or  of  silver  or  precious  stones?  His  ripe 
knowledge  and  keen  observation,  after  a  life  of  study 
and  vast  experience,  fitted  him  not  only  to  become  the 
leading  physician  and  surgeon  of  his  day,  but,  together 
with  a  rare  talent  for  communicating  the  treasures  of 
his  learning,  enabled  him  to  instruct  hundreds,  nay, 
even  thousands,  of  students  in  the  medical  schools  which 
he  had  established.  These  young  men,  looking  up  to 
Nathan  Smith  as  their  professional  father,  went  abroad 
to  cure  the  sick,  and,  as  the  result  of  his  teaching,  to 
raise  the  standard  of  medical  science  to  a  far  greater 
height  of  excellence  than  it  had  known  before. 

Nor  did  his  great  work  for  his  fellow  beings  end 
when  he  ceased  to  move  among  men  and  teach  in  bodily 
presence,  for  his  clear  and  forcible  writings  have  gone 
on  and  on  for  a  hundred  years,  transmitting  to  succeed- 
ing generations  some  of  the  wealth  of  his  discoveries 
and  scientific  research.  His  essays  on  "Necrosis"  and 
"Typhus  (Typhoid)  Fever," — so  far  in  advance  of 
the  enlightenment  of  the  time  in  which  they  were 
written, — are  a  marvel  to  surgeons  and  physicians  of 
to-day,  and  are  pronounced  by  them  to  be  classics  in 
medical  literature. 

Loving  and  sorrowing  friends  laid  the  mortal 
remains  of  Nathan  Smith  away  to  rest  in  the  Grove 
Street  Cemetery  in  the  lot  belonging  to  the  college  at 
New  Haven,  and  erected  there  to  mark  the  spot  a 
handsome  stone  with  this  simple  inscription : 


The  Grave  of  Nathan  Smith 


The  dark  brown  sandstone  monument,  modeled  upon  the  tomb  of  the 
Scipios  at  Rome,  marks  the  grave  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  in  the  College  lot  of 
the  Grove  Street  Cemetery  in  New  Haven. 


of  Nathan  Smith  14s 

N.  Smith 

Professor  of  Med.  &  Surgery 
in  Yale  College 

Born  at  Rehoboth  Mass.  Sept.  30,  1762. 
Died  in  this  City,  Jan.  26,  1829. 

The  best  memorials  of  Dr.  Smith  are  in  the  schools 
which  he  founded  and  in  the  steadily  growing  reverence 
in  which  his  memory  is  held.  But  it  is  also  delightful 
to  know,  as  has  been  stated,  that  Dartmouth  has 
recently  erected  a  beautiful  building  and  called  it  "The 
Nathan  Smith  Laboratory."  Very  seldom  in  the 
world's  history  have  public  monuments  been  erected  to 
the  men  who  have  worked  to  cure  pain  and  save  the 
lives  of  their  fellow  beings.  "Even  the  statue,  which 
once  graced  Trafalgar  Square,  of  the  great  Jenner, 
who  by  his  discoveries  saved  millions  of  human  beings 
from  the  scourge  of  smallpox,  was  taken  down  to  make 
room  for  that  of  the  successful  soldier  whose  laurels 
were  won,  not  of  c'wes  servatos,  but  on  fields  red  with 
slaughter." 

But  if  no  national  recognition  has  marked  the  splen- 
did achievements  of  Nathan  Smith,  many  and  eloquent 
have  been  the  eulogies  pronounced  upon  him  by  ardent 
and  appreciative  admirers  of  his  rare  character  and 
work,  in  the  more  than  eighty  years  since  he  ceased  his 
labors  on  earth. 

Very  soon  after  the  death  of  Nathan  Smith,  Profes- 


144  Life  and  Letters 


sor  Knight — his  associate  and  friend  at  Yale  College — 
pronounced  before  a  large  and  interested  audience  in 
New  Haven  an  eulogium  which  bears  the  mark  of  his 
profound  and  heartfelt  admiration  for  the  one  whom 
he  designated  as  having  been  "no  ordinary  man," 
beloved,  respected  and  useful,  but  even  more,  for  he 
was  "more  extensively  known  than  any  other  medical 
man  in  New  England.  Indeed  it  is  doubted  whether 
any  other  man  in  New  England,  of  any  profession, 
possessed  so  large  a  number  of  personal  acquaintances 
and  friends.  .  .  .  The  poor  knew  him  as  their  bene- 
factor; the  sick,  as  their  skilful,  attentive  physician; 
the  rich  were  honored  by  his  society;  and  the  wise  and 
the  good  received  him  as  their  friend  and  companion. 

"At  the  same  time  his  influence  over  medical  litera- 
ture was  equally  extensive.  This  influence  was  exerted, 
through  his  large  acquaintance  among  medical  men,  by 
his  advice  and  example,  as  well  as  more  directly 
through  the  medium  of  the  various  medical  schools, 
which  were  favored  with  his  instructions.  By  means  of 
his  influence  thus  exerted,  he  effected,  over  a  large 
extent  of  country,  a  great  and  salutary  change  in  the 
medical  profession.  The  assertion,  that  he  has  done 
more  for  the  improvement  of  Physic  and  Surgery  in 
New  England,  than  any  other  man,  will,  by  no  one,  be 
deemed  invidious.  ..." 

Among  the  qualities  of  mind  and  habits  of  life  which 
Dr.  Knight  considered  as  potent  in  raising  Dr.  Smith 
so  far  above  the  ordinary  level,  he  mentions  first:  "A 
keen,  discriminating  inquisitiveness  into  every  thing 
submitted  to  his  inspection.  ..." 


of  Nathan  Smith  145 

"Another  faculty  of  his  mind  was  a  memory  highly 
retentive.  ...  By  the  aid  of  this  faculty,  his  mind 
became  a  storehouse,  well  filled  with  facts  suited  to  his 
necessities.  From  it  he  could,  at  will,  draw  forth 
materials  to  guide  him  in  his  practice;  to  confirm  and 
to  illustrate  his  opinions. 

"Another  faculty,  which  contributed  more  than 
either  of  the  foregoing  to  his  eminence,  was  the  power 
of  reducing  all  the  knowledge  which  he  acquired, 
whether  from  reading  or  observation,  to  some  useful, 
practical  purpose.  .  .  .  This  faculty  is  familiarly  called 
plain  common  sense.  It  was  possessed  in  a  high  degree 
by  Dr.  Smith,  in  relation  to  all  subjects  connected  with 
his  profession.  The  same  faculty  was  illustrously  dis- 
played in  the  lives  of  Washington,  Franklin,  Sherman, 
Dwight  and  Whitney. 

"Another  faculty  possessed  by  the  deceased,  and 
which  aided  him  much  in  his  successful  career,  was  an 
undaunted  moral  courage.  .  .  .  With  him  there  was  no 
hesitation,  no  wavering  between  duty  and  expediency; 
between  the  welfare  of  his  patient  and  his  own  reputa- 
tion. .   .   . 

"To  these  intellectual  qualities,  were  added  others 
of  a  moral  nature,  which  facilitated  his  progress,  and 
rendered  it  more  successful.  I  allude  to  the  kindness, 
assiduity,  and  delicacy  with  which  he  treated  his 
patients.  .   .   . 

"As  an  instructor,  the  reputation  of  Dr.  Smith  was 
high,  from  the  time  he  began  the  business  of  instruc- 
tion. .  .  .  His  mode  of  communicating  instruction, 
since  his  connexion  with  the  institution  in  this  place,  has 


i/f.6  Life  and  Letters 


been  simple,  natural  and  unaffected.  He  sought  no  aid 
from  an  artificial  style,  but  merely  poured  forth,  in 
the  plain  language  of  enlightened  conversation,  the 
treasures  of  his  wisdom  and  experience.  He  occupied 
but  little  time  with  the  theories  and  opinions  of  other 
men,  referring  to  books  only  for  the  facts  which  they 
contain;  nor  did  he  often  indulge  in  theoretic  specula- 
tions of  his  own ;  but  gave  principally  the  results  of  his 
practice  and  experience." 

Professor  Knight's  "Biographic  Memoir"  is  full  of 
enthusiastic  and  heartfelt  praise  of  Nathan  Smith,  and 
not  only  as  a  physician,  surgeon,  and  teacher,  for  it 
bears  strong  testimony  to  the  beauty  and  excellence  of 
his  character  in  all  of  the  relations  of  life.  "The  inter- 
ests of  literature  and  sound  morality,  received  his 
cordial  and  unvaried  support.  .  .  .  That  benevolence 
which  was  so  active  and  so  expansive,  could  not  but 
shed  its  brightest  and  warmest  rays,  upon  those  who 
were  the  nearest  and  dearest  to  his  heart."  After  com- 
menting in  highest  terms  upon  the  "illustrious"  life  of 
Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Knight  drew  for  his  audience  valuable 
and  instructive  lessons  from  his  wonderful  example  of 
unselfishness,  his  enterprise,  industry  and  benevolence. 
This  Memoir  was  published  at  the  time  of  its  delivery 
in  pamphlet  form  and  was  afterwards  incorporated  by 
Nathan  R.  Smith  in  his  "Medical  and  Surgical  Me- 
moirs" of  his  father. 


CHAPTER  NINETEENTH 


Among  the  many  resolutions  passed  by  the  various 
colleges  with  which  Dr.  Smith  was  connected  were  the 
following : 

Copy  of  Records  of  a  Meeting  of  the  Faculty  of  the 
Medical  School  of  Maine,  held  on  March  6,  1829: 

"The  Committee  appointed  at  the  last  meeting  to 
propose  such  resolutions  as  it  may  appear  proper  for 
this  Faculty  to  adopt  in  reference  to  the  death  of  the 
late  Professor  Smith  presented  the  following  preamble 
and  resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  accepted: 

"Whereas  the  Medical  School  of  Maine,  from  its 
commencement  in  1821,  for  five  successive  years 
enjoyed  the  instructions  and  profited  by  the  fame  of  the 
late  Professor  Smith  who  was  highly  distinguished  in 
his  profession,  and  who  by  years  of  arduous  exertion 
and  by  the  possession  of  rich  stores  of  experience  had 
become  peculiarly  qualified  for  the  duties  of  a  medical 
instructor,  and  whereas  it  has  pleased  Divine  Provi- 
dence to  remove  this  individual  from  life,  the  Medical 
Faculty  of  this  College  in  justice  to  the  offices  they  hold, 
as  well  as  to  their  own  feelings,  would  pay  the  tribute 
of  high  respect  for  his  character  and  grateful  recollec- 
tion of  his  professional  services,  therefore 

"Resolved:  That  this  Faculty  deeply  sympathize 
with  the  profession  in  the  loss  of  a  public  benefactor 
whose   reputation  and  worth  as  an  able  lecturer,   a 


i/j.8  Life  and  Letters 


skilful  surgeon  and  a  successful  physician,  distinguished 
by  accuracy  of  opinion,  clearness  of  judgment  and 
benevolence  of  feeling  are  universally  acknowledged, 
and  that  they  will  ever  cherish  the  memory  of  one  who 
has  contributed  so  much  to  the  improvement  of  medical 
education  and  the  advancement  of  medical  science. 

"Resolved:  That  the  President  of  this  Faculty  be 
requested  to  deliver  a  Discourse  on  the  occasion  of  the 
death  of  the  late  Professor  Smith  before  the  Medical 
class  and  the  public. 

"Resolved:  That  the  secretary  communicate  this 
expression  of  our  views  and  feelings  to  the  afflicted 
family  of  the  deceased. 

"Adjourned  without  day. 

P.  Cleaveland,  Sec." 

On  March  26,  1829,  Rev.  William  Allen,  of  Bow- 
doin  College,  Me.,  delivered,  by  appointment  of  the 
Faculty  of  Medicine,  a  valuable  and  interesting  address 
commemorating  the  life  and  work  of  Nathan  Smith, 
which  was  published  at  the  request  of  the  students  of 
the  Medical  School  of  Maine. 

After  an  eloquent  dissertation  on  the  importance  of 
the  work  of  a  physician  in  general,  President  Allen 
gave  in  outline  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Nathan  Smith, 
bringing  the  incidents  down  to  the  spring  of  1821, 
when  by  his  assistance  the  Medical  School  of  Maine 
was  opened  and  Dr.  Smith  delivered  the  various  lec- 
tures, excepting  only  those  on  chemistry.  Although 
valuable  assistants  came  to  be  his  associates,  he  con- 


of  Nathan  Smith  14.Q 

tinued  to  lecture  in  the  school  for  five  years,  when 
"from  the  circumstances  of  his  connection  with  the  insti- 
tution of  New  Haven,  he  found  it  necessary  to  decline 
lecturing  in  any  other  establishment. "  Dr.  Allen  says 
that  "much  of  the  great  success  of  this  Medical  School 
at  Bowdoin  may  doubtless  be  ascribed  to  the  reputation, 
experience  and  skill  of  Dr.  Smith." 

The  address  of  President  Allen  gives  valuable  testi- 
mony to  the  rare  talents  and  enterprise  of  Nathan 
Smith  as  well  as  to  his  unselfishness  and  high  standard 
of  moral  excellence.  It  tells  of  his  "remarkable  gentle- 
ness and  kindness  which  gained  the  confidence  and  affec- 
tion of  his  patients;  of  his  fidelity  and  assiduous,  unre- 
mitted attention  to  the  sick,  and  of  his  cheerful,  self- 
denying,  unmercenary  toils  and  exposure  to  cold,  hun- 
ger, and  various  hardships  and  dangers  in  visiting  the 
abodes  of  the  poor.  In  some  great  men  there  seems  to 
exist  a  strong  power  of  repulsion,  but  the  manners  of 
Dr.  Smith  were  attracting  and  delightful.  He  had  a 
keen  relish  for  the  pleasures  of  social  intercourse.  He 
was  steady  and  permanent  in  his  friendships,  and  by  his 
numerous  pupils  he  was  beloved." 

President  Allen  gives  a  most  touching  and  graphic 
account  of  the  last  illness  of  Dr.  Smith,  telling  of  his 
firm  faith  in  the  Christian  religion  and  of  the  peace 
which  soothed  his  last  hours.  From  this  part  of  the 
address  the  writer  has  already  quoted. 

On  July  31,  1879,  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Dr. 
Smith,  Dr.  Oliver  P.  Hubbard,  Professor  of  Chemistry 
at  Dartmouth  College,  delivered  a  lecture  there  intro- 
ductory to  the  eighty-third  course  of  medical  lectures 


150  Life  and  Letters 


at  Dartmouth  College,  on  "The  Early  History  of  the 
New  Hampshire  Medical  Institution,  with  a  Sketch  of 
its  Founder,  Nathan  Smith,"  from  which  discourse 
some  extracts  have  been  taken  for  this  book. 

No  outline  sketch  of  the  life  and  work  of  Dr.  Smith 
could  be  more  comprehensive  or  better  drawn  than  this 
very  interesting  history,  for  it  is  full  of  information 
collected  from  the  most  reliable  sources  and  the  many 
bright  and  graphic  anecdotes  connected  with  the  exten- 
sive professional  work  of  Dr.  Smith  furnish  illustra- 
tions which  make  the  whole  lecture  delightfully 
enjoyable.  This  valuable  history  was  read  by  request 
before  the  New  Hampshire  Medical  Society,  at  their 
semi-annual  meeting  at  Hanover  on  September  17, 
1879,  and  was  afterwards  printed  in  Washington  with 
a  steel  engraving  of  Dr.  Smith  on  its  front  page. 

The  reputation  of  Dr.  Smith's  noble  life  and  splen- 
did achievements  has  never  suffered  eclipse,  and  as 
time  has  gone  on  many  have  paid  honor  to  his  memory. 

In  Augusta  House,  Maine,  on  June  15,  1886,  at  a 
banquet  given  to  Dr.  H.  H.  Hills,  on  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  his  practice  in  medicine,  the  Hon.  J.  W. 
Bradbury  said:  "Our  guest  reminds  me  by  certain 
characteristics  .  .  .  of  a  very  eminent  physician  whose 
lectures  I  attended  sixty-two  years  ago.  I  refer  to 
Dr.  Nathan  Smith.  .  .  .  Strong  common  sense,  a 
mind  clear  as  crystal  penetrating  to  the  bottom  of  the 
subject,  were  the  qualities  impressed  upon  me  as 
especially  his." 

Professor  Alfred  Mitchell  of  Bowdoin  then  fol- 
lowed, saying:  "Our  school  was  reared  and  cared  for 


of  Nathan  Smith  75/ 

by  men  of  learning  and  genius,  and  this  latter  attri- 
bute is  not  to  be  limited  in  its  fullest  significance  when 
we  apply  it  to  the  character  and  professional  attain- 
ments of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  of  whom  I  once  heard 
the  late  Professor  Willard  Parker,  in  the  course  of 
one  of  his  lectures,  exclaim  with  uplifted  arm  and 
lighted  countenance :  'Gentlemen,  Nathan  Smith  was  a 
great  man,  one  of  the  greatest  that  this  country  ever 
saw!!!'  and  then  followed  a  digression  so  hearty  and 
enthusiastic  and  coming  from  such  a  source,  that  we 
all  knew  that  Nathan  Smith  was  a  great  man." 

Professor  Benjamin  Silliman  sums  up  in  a  few  words 
the  list  of  Dr.  Smith's  additions  to  the  science  of 
healing.     He  says: 

"Dr.  Smith  was  an  original  investigator.  .  .  . 
Among  the  numerous  important  contributions  made 
by  him  to  the  resources  of  practice  in  surgery  involving 
scientific  principles  and  original  operations  may  be 
mentioned  that,  next  to  Dr.  McDowell  of  Kentucky, 
he  was  the  first  in  this  country  to  perform  the  operation 
of  extirpating  ovarian  tumor  (though  the  operation 
had  been  once  or  twice  performed  in  Germany  unbe- 
known to  either  of  these  American  surgeons).  He 
was  the  first  to  perform  in  this  country  the  operation 
of  staphyloraphy.  He  devised  and  introduced  a 
method  of  amputating  the  thigh  which  bears  his  name. 
In  the  pathology  of  necrosis  he  developed  important 
scientific  principles  on  which  is  founded  a  new  and 
successful  practice.  His  mode  of  reducing  dislocation 
of  the  hip  joint  was  new,  ingenious  and  philosophical, 
as  also  is  the  apparatus  he  invented  for  the  treatment 


152  Life  and  Letters 


of  fractures  which  has  been  generally  adopted  by  the 
best  surgeons  in  all  parts  of  the  country." 

Professor  Samuel  D.  Gross  of  the  Jefferson  Medical 
School  of  Philadelphia  wrote  of  Dr.  Smith  as  follows : 

"One  of  the  most  extraordinary  medical  men  whom 
this  country  ever  produced,  whether  we  regard  his 
great  ability  as  a  general  practitioner,  his  skill  and 
daring  as  a  surgeon,  or  his  versatility  as  a  teacher  of 
the  different  branches  of  medicine,  was  Nathan  Smith 
of  New  Haven.  .    .    . 

"This  wonderful  man,  a  true  pioneer  in  the  cause  of 
medical  education,  lectured  early  in  life  upon  all  the 
branches  of  medicine  then  taught  at  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege and  enjoyed  for  a  long  time  almost  an  unrivaled 
reputation  as  a  surgeon,  teacher  and  general  practi- 
tioner in  the  New  England  States.  In  his  tract  on 
fevers,  he  shows  himself  to  have  been  a  sagacious 
observer,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  nature  and 
treatment  of  the  disease  which  he  has  so  well 
described."21 

It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  in  this  history 
all  the  eulogies  pronounced  on  Dr.  Smith  since  his 
death  in  1829;  but  that  of  Dr.  William  H.  Welch  can- 
not be  omitted,  for  it  is  the  highest  praise  from  the 
highest  authority  in  this  present  century  of  advanced 
science  and  enlightenment.  The  address  of  Dr.  Welch 
on  "The  Relation  of  Yale  to  Medicine"  was  delivered 
on  October  21,  1901,  at  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 

21  Quoted  from  the  American  Journal  of  Medical  Science  of  April, 
1876,  p.  434. 


of  Nathan  Smith  153 

of  the  founding  of  Yale  College  and  reprinted  from  the 
Yale  Medical  Journal  for  November,  1901. 

{From  the  address  of  Dr.  William  H.  Welch.) 

Dr.  Welch  states  that:  "Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  when 
he  came  to  New  Haven  from  Dartmouth,  was  already 
a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  medical  firmament. 
Starting  a  poor  boy  in  a  small  village  in  Vermont,  he 
managed  by  his  own  efforts  to  obtain  a  good  general 
education,  and  then  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School 
and  in  Great  Britain  a  medical  education  of  a  char- 
acter then  almost  unknown  in  New  England.  He  was 
the  originator  of  the  Dartmouth  Medical  School  in 
1797,  the  most  distinguished  member  of  the  first 
Medical  Faculty  of  Yale,  and  in  1820  the  organizer  of 
the  Medical  Department  of  Bowdoin  College.  He  did 
much  of  his  most  important  work  in  New  Haven, 
where  he  remained  until  his  death  in  1829. 

"Nathan  Smith  shed  undying  glory  upon  the  Yale 
Medical  School.  Famous  in  his  day  and  generation, 
he  is  still  more  famous  to-day,  for  he  was  far  ahead 
of  his  times,  and  his  reputation,  unlike  that  of  so  many 
medical  worthies  of  the  past,  has  steadily  increased, 
as  the  medical  profession  has  slowly  caught  up  with 
him.  We  now  see  that  he  did  more  for  the  general 
advancement  of  medical  and  surgical  practice  than  any 
of  his  predecessors  or  contemporaries  in  this  country. 
He  was  a  man  of  high  intellectual  and  moral  qualities, 
of  great  originality  and  untiring  energy,  an  accurate 
and  keen  observer,  unfettered  by  traditions  and  the- 


1 54  Life  and  Letters 


ories,  fearless,  and  above  all,  blessed  with  an  uncom- 
mon fund  of  plain  common  sense. 

"Nathan  Smith's  essay  on  Typhus  Fever,  published 
in  1824,  is  like  a  fresh  breeze  from  the  sea  amid  the 
dreary  and  stifling  writings  of  most  of  his  contempo- 
raries. The  disease  which  he  here  describes  is  typhoid 
fever,  and  never  before  had  the  symptoms  been  so 
clearly  and  accurately  pictured.  He  recognized  that 
this  fever  is  due  to  a  specific  cause  and  is  self-limited. 
It  took  courage  in  those  days  for  a  physician  to  write, 
'During  the  whole  course  of  my  practice  I  have  never 
been  satisfied  that  I  have  cut  short  a  single  case  of 
typhus,  which  I  knew  to  be  such,'  and  again,  'It  does 
not  follow,  of  course,  that  this  disease  in  all  cases 
requires  remedies,  or  that  a  patient  should,  necessarily 
take  medicines  because  he  has  the  disease.'  To  him 
the  lancet  was  not  the  'magnum  donum  Dei'  that  it 
was  to  Benjamin  Rush,  and  he  did  more  to  do  away 
with  its  indiscriminate  use  than  any  single  man.  The 
treatment  which  he  advocated — cold  water,  milk  and 
avoidance  of  all  violent  remedies — is  practically  the 
same  as  that  now  employed,  but  it  was  many  a  day 
before  physicians  came  to  accept  Dr.  Smith's  revolu- 
tionary views. 

"To  the  surgeon,  Nathan  Smith's  paper  on  the 
Pathology  and  Treatment  of  Necrosis  has  in  course  of 
time  become  as  much  of  a  classic  as  the  essay  on 
Typhus  Fever  is  to  the  physician.  Here  we  find  the 
same  admirable  description  of  symptoms,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  methods  of  treatment  which  anticipated 
modern  surgery.     This  is  not  the  occasion,  even  did 


of  Nathan  Smith  755 

time  permit,  to  describe  Dr.  Smith's  achievements  in 
surgery.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that  he  was  the  first  to 
perform  a  number  of  important  surgical  operations, 
and  that  in  this  branch,  not  less  than  in  medicine,  he 
was  an  innovator  and  reformer. 

"Although  none  of  Dr.  Smith's  colleagues  can  be 
placed  in  the  same  rank  with  him  as  contributors  to 
medical  knowledge,  they  were  men  of  excellent  attain- 
ments and  became  distinguished  teachers." 


CHAPTER  TWENTIETH 

It  may  be  interesting  to  the  readers  of  this  biog- 
raphy to  learn  something  further  about  some  of  those 
who  have  held  a  prominent  place  in  its  pages. 

The  good  wife  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  outlived  her 
husband  by  twenty  years.  The  early  part  of  that  time 
Mrs.  Smith  spent  in  her  home  in  New  Haven  with  her 
younger  children  before  going  to  live  for  two  years  in 
the  home  of  her  son,  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith,  in  Balti- 
more. It  was  there  that  her  daughter,  Sarah,  was 
married  to  Mr.  James  Osgood  of  Springfield,  Mass. 
By  their  invitation  she  accompanied  them  to  their 
home,  where,  after  a  few  years,  she  was  released  from 
her  earthly  labors,  on  September  7,  1848,  and  her 
children  laid  her  away  to  rest  in  the  beautiful  cemetery 
of  Springfield  in  the  lot  of  her  son,  Dr.  James  Morven 
Smith. 

Dr.  George  C.  Shattuck,  pupil,  lifelong  friend  and 
benefactor  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  and  his  children,  died 
on  March  18,  1854. 

The  many  tributes  of  admiration  and  respect  to 
Nathan  Smith,  extending  over  so  long  a  period  after 
he  had  ceased  his  labors  among  men,  are  certainly  most 
unusual,  and,  coming  from  such  distinguished  and  dis- 
interested sources,  bear  strong  testimony  to  the  nobility 
of  the  man  and  to  the  magnitude  of  his  achievements. 
But  what  honor  to  the  memory  of  such  a  man  as 
Nathan  Smith  could  be  greater  than  that  his  descend- 


Dr.  David  Solon  Chase  Hall  Smith 

Eldest  Son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 


Nathan  Smith  757 


ants  should  take  up  and  continue  his  work,  that  through 
them  suffering  humanity  might  still  receive  the  benefits 
which  he  so  unselfishly  strove  to  scatter? 

It  is  probable  that  there  is  hardly  a  family  in  this 
country  in  which  so  many  of  its  members  have  adopted 
the  profession  of  their  progenitor.  Since  the  death  of 
Nathan  Smith,  four  sons,  nine  grandsons,  six  great- 
grandsons  and  one  great-great-grandson  have  already 
more  or  less  successfully  practiced  the  art  of  healing. 
As  a  pioneer  in  the  profession  he  had  indeed  to  fight 
his  way  past  almost  insurmountable  obstacles  through 
the  dense  ignorance  which  surrounded  him,  and  blaze 
the  way  for  those  who  were  to  follow;  but  even  after 
the  pathway  was  made  clear,  success  for  them  was  not 
assured;  in  addition  to  inherited  genius  and  talent  for 
the  profession,  courage  and  industry  were  needed  to 
enable  the  Smith  surgeons  and  doctors  to  push  their 
way  through  increasing  competition  and  newly  arising 
difficulties  towards  still  higher  and  ever  widening  dis- 
coveries in  the  science  of  medicine. 

All  four  of  the  sons  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  became 
physicians  and  surgeons  of  note. 

The  eldest  son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  Dr.  David 
Solon  Chase  Hall  Smith,  born  June  27,  1795,  died 
April  6,  1859.     Yale  MD-  l8l6« 

For  nearly  thirty  years  Dr.  Solon  Smith,  as  he  was 
called,  was  the  leading  physician  and  surgeon  of  Sutton, 
Mass.  His  thorough  training  and  the  prestige  of  his 
father's  fame  brought  him  also  a  large  consultation 
practice  at  a  distance  from  his  home.  "He  was  dis- 
tinguished as  a  naturalist,  being  intimately  acquainted 


I  $8  Life  and  Letters 


with  animal  nature,  birds  and  reptiles,  and,  having 
made  a  special  study  of  botany,  could  classify  and  give 
the  medical  properties  of  nearly  all  the  plants  of  this 
country."  His  historian,  from  whom  we  quote,  said 
of  him,  "Like  his  father  he  was  a  great  man  but  never 
became  rich."  His  home  life  was  clouded  by  sorrow, 
for  he  outlived  all  five  of  his  children,  and  his  experi- 
ences, although  at  times  full  of  romance,  were  also  full 
of  pathos.  In  1 848  he  removed  to  Providence,  where, 
eleven  years  later,  he  died,  aged  sixty-four  years. 

The  second  son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  Dr.  Nathan 
Ryno  Smith,  born  May  21,  1797,  died  July  3,  1877. 
YaleA.B.,  i8i7;M.D.,  1820;  Princeton  LL.D.,  1862. 

The  beginning  of  the  brilliant  career  of  Dr.  N.  R. 
Smith  has  already  been  portrayed  in  this  history  and 
his  steady  rise  to  great  eminence  in  the  profession  is 
well  known.  As  has  been  shown,  he  assisted  his  father 
in  establishing  the  Medical  School  of  the  University  of 
Vermont,  in  1822,  and  after  filling  there  the  Professor- 
ship of  Surgery  and  Anatomy  for  several  years,  he 
joined  Dr.  McClellan  in  1825  in  founding  the  Jefferson 
Medical  School  of  Philadelphia  where  for  two  years 
he  held  the  Professorship  of  Anatomy,  before  accept- 
ing the  call  of  the  University  of  Maryland  to  become 
its  Professor  of  Anatomy.  Here  by  an  exchange  with 
Professor  John  B.  Davidge  he  was  almost  immediately 
transferred  to  the  Professorship  of  Surgery. 

Except  for  an  interval  of  three  years,  from  1837  to 
1840,  when  he  served  as  Professor  of  Surgery  in  the 
Transylvania    School    of    Kentucky,    Dr.    Nathan   R. 


Dr.  Nathan  Ryno  Smith 
Second  Son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 


of  Nathan  Smith  1 5Q 

Smith  devoted  his  splendid  energy  to  the  interests  of 
his  work  in  Baltimore. 

He  was  a  great  surgeon,  a  learned  and  interesting 
teacher,  as  well  as  an  able  writer  and  an  ingenious 
inventor  of  surgical  instruments.  By  inheritance  from 
his  father,  Dr.  Smith  possessed  a  remarkable  acuteness 
of  perception  and  promptness  of  action,  and  his  many 
fine  qualities,  together  with  a  commanding  presence, 
obtained  for  him  from  his  students  the  title  of  "The 
Emperor."  So  beloved  was  this  great  physician  that 
the  name  of  Professor  Nathan  R.  Smith  was  a  house- 
hold word  throughout  the  State  of  Maryland. 

Among  his  inventions,  Dr.  Smith  himself  regarded 
his  anterior  splint  as  his  chief  contribution  to  surgical 
appliances,  but  hardly  second  in  importance  to  the 
surgeon  was  his  lithotome,  to  which  his  son,  Dr.  Alan 
P.  Smith,  attributed  much  of  his  own  phenomenal  suc- 
cess in  lithotomy.  Dr.  Nathan  R.  Smith  found  his 
anterior  splint  already  in  use  in  the  noted  hospitals  of 
Europe  when  he  visited  them  in  1867,  and  he  also 
found  that  his  professional  reputation  had  preceded 
him  to  the  Old  World,  for  he  was  welcomed  and  enter- 
tained by  the  most  distinguished  physicians  and  sur- 
geons of  London  and  Paris,  among  the  number  Sir 
James  Paget  and  Sir  Spencer  Wells.  The  later  after- 
ward visited  Dr.  Smith  in  Baltimore. 

On  account  of  his  vigorous  constitution,  Dr.  Nathan 
R.  Smith  retained  his  activity  to  an  advanced  period  of 
life,  but  gradually  a  disease  incident  to  old  age  gained 
upon  him  until  "finally  on  the  3d  of  July,  1877,  a  few 


160  Life  and  Letters 


weeks  after  he  had  completed  his  eightieth  year,  the 
conflict  ceased  and  he  slept  in  death." 

The  third  son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  Dr.  James 
Morven  Smith,  born  September  23,  1805,  died  April 
26,  1853.    Yale  M.D.,  1828. 

Dr.  J.  M.  Smith  became  a  student  in  the  academic 
department  of  Yale  at  an  early  age ;  he  began  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine  at  Westfield,  but  removed  to  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  where  for  nearly  twenty  years  he  was  a 
highly  successful  practitioner  of  medicine  among  the 
prominent  families  of  the  place.  He  was  devoted  to 
his  patients  and  greatly  beloved  by  them.  When  still 
in  his  prime  (aged  somewhat  less  than  forty-eight 
years)  he  was  cut  off  by  a  tragic  death  in  a  railroad 
accident  at  Norwalk,  Conn. 

The  fourth  son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  Dr.  John 
Derby  Smith,  born  April  9,  181 2,  died  April  26,  1884. 
Yale  A.B.,  1832;  University  of  Maryland  M.D.,  1846. 

Before  studying  medicine,  Dr.  J.  D.  Smith  studied 
and  was  ordained  a  Congregational  minister  in  the 
Andover  Theological  Seminary.  His  charge  was  at 
Charlemont,  Mass.,  where  he  preached  for  ten  years, 
but  then  had  to  give  up  his  pastorate  on  account  of 
throat  trouble  and  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  under 
the  direction  of  his  brother,  Dr.  N.  R.  Smith,  in 
Baltimore. 

During  the  Civil  War,  he  was  assistant  surgeon  in 
the  Fairfax  Seminary  hospital  and  he  afterwards 
served  for  two  years  as  surgeon  in  the  United  States 
Navy.  Dr.  John  Derby  Smith  was  brilliantly  talented 
and  a  fine  classical  scholar,  and,  had  he  given  his  undi- 


Dr.  James  Morven  Smith 

Third  Son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 


of  Nathan  Smith  161 

vided  attention  to  the  practice  of  medicine,  his  reputa- 
tion for  skill  might  have  rivalled  that  of  his  brothers, 
but  as  it  was,  he  was  both  an  eloquent  preacher  and  a 
good  physician. 

Dr.  Nathan  Smith  Lincoln,  grandson  of  Dr.  Nathan 
Smith  and  son  of  Rev.  Increase  Sumner  and  Gratia 
Eliza  (Smith)  Lincoln,  born  April  3,  1822,  died 
October  14,  1898.  Dartmouth  A.M.,  1850;  Univer- 
sity of  Maryland  M.D.,  1852;  Dartmouth  LL.D., 
1892. 

Dr.  Lincoln  occupied  four  chairs  in  Columbian  Uni- 
versity of  Washington,  D.  C, — Chemistry,  Theory 
and  Practice  of  Medicine,  Anatomy  and  Physiology, 
and  Surgery,  and  was  Professor  Emeritus  at  the  time 
of  his  death.  President  Lincoln  signed  his  commission 
as  surgeon  of  the  District  of  Columbia  Volunteers  in 
May,  1 861,  and  he  had  five  hospitals  under  his  charge, 
as  surgeon-in-chief,  which  position  he  held  during  the 
Civil  War  and  for  some  months  after  its  close. 

Dr.  Lincoln  was  not  only  a  great  surgeon;  he  was 
also  a  great  physician.  This  was  achieved  through  his 
unusual  power  of  diagnosis,  a  direct  inheritance  from 
his  grandfather,  Dr.  Nathan  Smith. 

Dr.  Lincoln  was  called  in  consultation  to  attend 
President  Garfield,  and  was  the  only  surgeon  who  made 
a  correct  diagnosis  of  the  wound,  as  was  proved  by  the 
autopsy. 

Dr.  Lincoln  held  many  important  professional  posi- 
tions, and  his  general  practice  among  the  influential 
citizens  of  Washington  was  very  extensive.  He  was 
greatly  beloved  by  those  who  knew  him  well  and  by  his 


162  Life  and  Letters 


unusually  attractive  personality  made  many  friends. 
Although  he  lived  to  the  ripe  age  of  seventy-six  years 
he  retained  his  professional  activity  almost  to  the  last 
of  his  long  life. 

Dr.  David  Paige  Smith,  son  of  Dr.  James  Morven 
Smith,  born  October  i,  1830,  died  December  26,  1880. 
Jefferson  Medical  School,  Philadelphia  M.D.,  1853. 

After  being  graduated  in  medicine  from  Jefferson 
Medical  School,  Dr.  David  Smith  studied  under  dis- 
tinguished surgeons  in  Edinburgh,  London  and  Paris. 

In  1 861  on  his  return  to  America  he  enlisted  in  the 
United  States  Army  as  surgeon  of  the  Eighteenth 
Massachusetts  Infantry  regiment,  was  soon  promoted 
to  be  brigade  surgeon,  and  at  the  end  of  the  Civil  War 
was  retired  with  the  brevet  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel. 
He  then  resumed  the  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery 
in  Springfield,  Mass.,  but  was  called  in  1873  to  the 
chair  of  Theory  and  Practice  of  Medicine  in  the  Yale 
Medical  School.  After  serving  for  nearly  four  years 
he  relinquished  this  professorship  to  accept  the  chair 
of  Surgery  in  the  same  university.  "The  personality 
of  Dr.  David  P.  Smith  was  unique  and  strikingly  indi- 
vidual,— quick,  abrupt  and  positive, — characteristics 
in  part  hereditary,"  and  like  his  grandfather  he  was  a 
very  skilful  and  well-known  surgeon.  The  loss  of  his 
only  child,  a  lad  of  ten  years,  deeply  saddened  his  life, 
but  seemed  to  increase  his  strong  sympathy  for  others 
in  trouble.  Dr.  David  Smith's  life  was  full  of  good 
deeds  and  the  large  estate  of  his  wife  and  himself  was 
bequeathed  by  them  in  part  to  Yale  University  and  the 


Dr.  John  Derby  Smith 

Fourth  Son  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith 


of  Nathan  Smith  163 

rest  to  the  establishment  of  a  hospital  for  children  in 
Springfield  as  a  memorial  to  their  beloved  son. 

Dr.  Alan  Penniman  Smith,  third  son  of  Dr.  Nathan 
Ryno  Smith,  born  February  3,  1840,  died  July  18, 
1898.     University  of  Maryland  M.D.,  1861. 

It  is  seldom  in  the  history  of  any  profession  that  a 
steady  rise  to  distinction  is  begun  at  such  an  early  age 
as  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Alan  P.  Smith. 

At  the  time  of  his  graduation  in  medicine,  his  father 
had  reached  the  zenith  of  his  fame  and  in  his  large 
practice  in  medicine  and  surgery  needed  the  assistance 
of  this,  his  only  living  son.  Fine  training,  great  indus- 
try and  ambition,  together  with  his  rare  inheritance  of 
talent,  soon  caused  Dr.  Alan  P.  Smith  to  be  recognized 
a  leader  in  the  profession. 

In  1868,  having  been  instrumental  in  obtaining  from 
Mr.  Hopkins  the  gift  to  the  city  of  Baltimore  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  he  was  selected  by  the  donor 
to  be  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  and  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of 
the  hospital  and  later  was  elected  to  fill  a  vacancy  on 
the  board  of  the  University. 

In  1873,  Dr.  Alan  P.  Smith  was  called  to  the  Profes- 
sorship of  Operative  Surgery  by  the  University  of 
Maryland.  After  successfully  filling  the  chair  for  one 
season,  he  resigned  his  professorship,  preferring  to 
devote  undivided  attention  to  his  very  extensive  prac- 
tice. Although  he  made  no  specialty  of  surgery,  his 
marked  success  in  that  department  commanded  the 
attention  of  the  profession,  and  at  the  request  of  the 
Medical  and  Chirugical  Society  of  Maryland,  in  1878, 


164  Life  and  Letters 


Dr.  Alan  P.  Smith  read  a  report  of  his  first  fifty-two 
cases  of  lithotomy,  without  a  single  loss  by  death.  This 
phenomenal  record  so  increased  his  reputation  as  a 
surgeon  that  cases  came  to  him  from  all  over  the 
country,  and  continued  success  crowned  his  professional 
labors  until,  from  overwork,  his  health  became  im- 
paired, and,  after  a  lingering  illness,  Dr.  Alan  Penni- 
man  Smith  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight  years.  In 
summing  up  this  brief  account  of  his  life,  we  quote 
from  the  minutes  of  the  board  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University: 

"The  distinction  of  Dr.  Alan  P.  Smith  extended  far 
beyond  the  city  of  his  residence  and  largely  rested  upon 
his  success  in  surgery,  especially  Lithotomy,  although 
he  was  widely  known  as  a  general  practitioner.  For 
his  gentleness,  sympathy,  courage,  knowledge,  and 
skill,  he  was  respected  and  beloved  by  all  classes  in  the 
Community." 

These  sketches  of  the  professional  work  of  the  four 
sons  and  of  three  of  the  grandsons  of  Dr.  Nathan 
Smith  exemplify  in  a  remarkable  manner  the  advan- 
tages of  inherited  talent.  His  good  work  has  been 
carried  forward  by  his  descendants  from  generation  to 
generation  not  only  as  far  as  the  third,  but  the  fourth 
and  fifth  generations  now  have  their  worthy  representa- 
tives doing  notable  work  in  the  profession  of  their 
distinguished  ancestor. 

When  we  consider  the  far-reaching  influence  of  the 
work  of  Dr.  Nathan  Smith  upon  the  community  at 
large,  not  only  as  having  been  a  most  skilful  physician 


of  Nathan  Smith  165 

and  surgeon,  but  in  the  effect  of  his  rare  example  of 
rectitude  and  self-sacrifice,  in  his  untiring  energy  in 
seeking  knowledge  in  spite  of  almost  insurmountable 
difficulties,  and  lastly  in  his  careful  teaching  and  train- 
ing of  thousands  of  young  men  who  went  forward  from 
his  lecture  halls  to  practice  and  train  others  in  the  arts 
of  healing,  we  must  realize  with  one  of  the  many  who 
have  sounded  his  praises  that  "Dr.  Nathan  Smith  was 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  medical  men  that  this 
country  has  ever  produced"  and  we  feel  that  the  Medi- 
cal School  of  Yale  University  may  be  proud  to  honor 
the  memory  of  one  who  was  so  intimately  connected 
with  its  success  as  well  as  so  instrumental  in  bringing 
the  school  into  existence  a  hundred  years  ago. 


THE  APPENDIX 

Dr.  Hubbard  says:  "The  publications  of  Dr.  Smith 
are  not  numerous.  He  began  to  write  as  soon  as  he 
commenced  practice.  The  earliest  papers  yet  dis- 
covered are  a  'Dissertation  on  the  causes  and  effects  of 
spasms  in  Fevers,'  in  the  Massachusetts  Magazine, 
vol.  3,  1 79 1,  January,  p.  33,  February,  p.  81,  and 
another,  'Observations  on  the  positions  of  patients  in 
the  operation  for  Lithotomy,  with  a  case  of  a  man 
seventy-two  years  old,'  published  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Lett- 
som,  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Medical  Society  of  London, 
vol.  6,  p.  227,  1805. 

"He  edited  with  copious  notes  and  additions,  'A 
treatise  on  Febrile  Diseases,  by  A.  P.  Wilson  Philips, 
M.D.,  2d  American  from  3rd  London  edition,  Hart- 
ford, 1816,  2  vols.'  He  contributed  valuable  papers 
to  the  Philadelphia  Monthly  Journal,  some  of  which 
were  reprinted  in  the  French  Medical  Journals." 

One  of  the  most  important  and  best  known  of  his 
writings  is  a  "Practical  Essay  on  Typhus  (Typhoid) 
Fever,"  8vo.,  1824,  New  York. 

"The  late  Dr.  A.  B.  Crosby,  in  referring  to  it  in  an 
address  delivered  a  few  years  since  before  the  Medical 
Society  of  New  Hampshire,  took  occasion  to  say  that 
it  was  the  first  comprehensive  description  of  typhus 
fever  ever  written  and  covered  in  a  wonderfully 
exhaustive  way,  not  only  the  clinical  history,  but  the 
pathology  of  this  remarkable  disease.     'Many  years 


168  Life  and  Letters 

later,'  he  continues,  'in  the  great  hospitals  of  Paris, 
Louis  made,  and  afterward  published,  his  own  observa- 
tions regarding  the  same  disease,  and  the  whole  world 
rang  with  plaudits  of  admiration  at  his  genius  and 
learning;  but  in  this  little  tract  of  Nathan  Smith  the 
gist  and  germ  of  all  the  magnificent  discoveries  of 
Louis  are  anticipated.'  " — Address  of  Dr.  Gilman 
Kimball. 

This  appeared  again  in  the  "Medical  and  Surgical 
Memoirs,"  published  by  his  son,  N.  R.  Smith.  His 
hitherto  unpublished  introductory  lecture  at  Yale  on 
the  "Progress  of  Medical  Science,"  which  was  prob- 
ably the  first  lecture  delivered  in  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment of  Yale  University,  is  of  sufficient  interest  to  be 
included  here. 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE  ON  THE  PROGRESS 
OF  MEDICAL  SCIENCE 

The  science  of  medicine  or  the  art  of  preventing  and 
curing  diseases  has,  by  the  most  intelligent  part  of 
mankind,  ever  been  considered  a  subject  of  great 
importance  to  society,  and  of  course  has  in  all  ages  and 
in  all  civilized  countries  engaged  the  attention  and 
employed  the  talents  of  some  men  of  the  first  grade  of 
intellect,  so  that  by  tracing  its  progress  we  bring  to 
view  the  operation  of  the  human  mind  on  a  subject  as 
difficult  of  investigation  as  anything  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  human  inquiry. 

It  has  been  said,  that  there  never  was  a  time  since 
the  human  race  existed  in  which  there  was  no  physician. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  we  have  no  distinct  account  of  phy- 
sicians at  a  very  early  period  of  society.  It  has  been 
stated  by  some  historians  that  before  Hippocrates 
lived  the  profession  of  physician  was  usurped  by  the 
priests;  and  that  they  had  some  share  of  the  practice, 
or  pretended  to  the  knowledge  of  remedies,  is  more 
than  probable;  even  since  the  Christian  era  this  has  been 
the  case  in  certain  countries;  for  instance,  the  Jesuits 
introduced  the  use  of  the  Cinchona  or  Peruvian  Bark  as 
a  remedy  for  intermittents  and  kept  it  as  a  secret  for 
some  time;  from  them  it  had  the  name  of  Jesuits'  Bark. 

But  notwithstanding  the  interference  of  the  priests 
in  the  practice  of  medicine,  I  should  think,  from  the 
mention  made  of  physicians  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 


iyo  Life  and  Letters 


especially  in  the  Apocryphal  writings,  that  there  were  at 
the  time  in  which  they  were  written, — which  was  long 
before  the  Christian  era, — a  class  of  men  called  physi- 
cians whose  business  it  was  to  cure  diseases  and  attend 
the  sick.  But  we  have  no  account  of  their  theory  or 
practice,  as  they  have  left  no  writings  on  the  subject 
that  have  come  down  to  us,  so  far  as  I  know. 

The  first  certain  account  we  have  of  medicine  as 
taught  and  practiced  by  a  distinct  profession  is  from 
the  writing  of  Hippocrates,  a  Grecian,  born  about  400 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  who  left  several  books 
on  medical  subjects  which  have  been  transmitted  to  us 
through  many  ages. 

That  there  was  such  a  person  as  Hippocrates,  who 
lived  about  the  time  above  stated,  and  who  was  greatly 
celebrated  for  his  skill  in  curing  diseases,  I  believe  is 
not  doubted  by  any,  but  that  we  have  received  all  his 
writings,  or  that  all  that  have  passed  under  his  name 
were  actually  written  by  him,  has  been  doubted  by  some, 
and  if  we  consider  that  when  Hippocrates  lived,  books 
were  written  and  not  printed,  and,  of  course,  that  the 
copies  must  be  few  and  the  knowledge  of  them  confined 
to  a  small  number;  and,  further,  if  we  consider  that 
they  were  preserved  in  this  way  for  many  ages,  we 
shall  have  some  reason  to  doubt  whether  those  books 
which  have  been  attributed  to  Hippocrates  were  all 
genuine.  But  this  does  not  materially  affect  our  present 
purpose,  for  though  they  may  not  have  been  wholly 
written  by  him,  yet  they  undoubtedly  show  the  opinions 
of  physicians  on  medical  subjects  at  or  about  the  time 
he  lived. 


of  Nathan  Smith  iji 

Of  those  writings  which  are  attributed  to  Hippoc- 
rates it  is  observable  that  the  phenomena  of  diseases, 
especially  of  acute  diseases,  are  described  with  great 
accuracy  and  those  symptoms  or  appearances  which 
enable  the  physician  to  foresee  the  event  of  the  disease, 
whether  favorable  or  unfavorable,  have  never  been 
more  clearly  pointed  out.  So  far  the  subject  of  disease 
lay  as  open  to  him  as  to  us,  because  it  was  within  the 
reach  of  his  own  observation;  he  could  observe  and 
remember  as  well  as  those  who  came  after  him,  and 
perhaps  few  men  have  lived  since  who  possessed  a  more 
discriminating  mind  or  a  sounder  judgment.  But  it  is 
the  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  disease  and  the 
modus  operandi  of  remedies  which  mark  the  difference 
between  the  theory  or  reasoning  of  Hippocrates  and 
the  modern  theory. 

This  difference,  in  which  perhaps  the  moderns  have 
greatly  the  advantage,  does  not  depend  on  the  superior 
understanding  of  modern  folks,  but  on  a  cause  of  a 
different  nature. 

It  has  been  justly  said  that  men  can  reason  but  from 
what  they  know,  and  Hippocrates  was  ignorant  of 
many  important  facts  which  have  been  discovered 
since  his  day  which  were  requisite  to  a  rational  theory 
of  medicine.  Hippocrates  was  almost  totally  ignorant 
of  anatomy  and  of  physiology,  a  knowledge  of  which 
may  be  considered  as  the  foundation  of  all  medical 
science.  This  Hippocrates  has  somewhere  in  his  writ- 
ings acknowledged;  he  says — if  I  mistake  not — that  he 
never  saw  but  one  skeleton  and  that  but  for  a  short 
time.     Hippocrates,  however,  had  a  better  excuse  for 


1^2  Life  and  Letters 


his  ignorance  than  some  who  have  lived  since,  who 
neglect  the  study  of  anatomy  through  want  of  industry 
and  a  dislike  of  application  of  every  kind.  It  is  not  to 
be  supposed  that  a  man  so  industrious,  so  fond  of  a 
knowledge  of  the  works  of  the  Creator  and  such  a  close 
observer  of  them,  would  not  gladly  have  embraced  the 
study  of  anatomy  if  the  superstitious  people  would 
have  permitted  it. 

This  pernicious  idolatry  of  mankind  with  respect  to 
dead  bodies, — which  appears  to  have  been  the  first 
idolatry  ever  introduced  into  the  world, — kept  men 
almost  wholly  ignorant  of  the  structure  of  their  own 
bodies  nearly  2000  years  after  medicine  was  taught  as 
a  science,  and  still  continues  to  harass  those  who 
attempt  to  enlighten  themselves  and  others  in  a  science 
which  has  as  high  claims  on  the  patronage  of  an  enlight- 
ened public  as  any  other.  Even  in  times  of  old  there 
lived  some  who  knew  the  importance  of  the  profession. 
The  Son  of  Sirach — who  is  supposed  to  have  lived 
some  time  between  the  Babylonish  captivity  of  the  Jews 
and  the  coming  of  our  Saviour — says:  "Honor  a 
Physician  with  the  honor  due  unto  him  for  the  uses  you 
may  have  of  him,  for  the  Lord  hath  created  him,  for  of 
the  Most  High  cometh  healing,  and  he  shall  receive 
honor  of  the  King.  The  skill  of  a  Physician  shall  lift 
up  his  head  and  in  the  sight  of  great  men  he  shall  be 
in  admiration." 

After  Hippocrates  the  next  physician  who  became 
distinguished  was  Galen,  who  was  also  a  Grecian;  he 
is  reported  to  have  written  many  books  on  medicine 
and  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  distinction,  and  such 


of  Nathan  Smith  775 

was  the  influence  of  his  writings,  as  stated  by  historians, 
that  they  were  received  and  considered  the  standard  of 
medical  science  by  all  the  learned  faculty  and  medical 
schools  for  nearly  2,000  years.  In  fact,  it  was  essen- 
tially the  doctrines  of  Galen  which  were  taught  in  all 
the  medical  schools  in  Europe  till  Hermann  Boerhaave 
published  his  system  of  physic  at  Leyden  in  Holland  in 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

During  this  long  period  in  which  Galen's  doctrines 
were  considered  as  canonical,  there  was  but  one  schism 
among  the  physicians  and  that  was  effected  by  Para- 
celsus, a  bold  and  empirical  physician,  who,  having 
acquired  some  knowledge  of  chemistry  and  chemical 
remedies,  was  appointed  professor  at  Basel.  He  and 
his  followers  were  called  chemists  or  chemical  physi- 
cians, while  those  who  followed  Galen  were  called 
Galenists.  The  contentions  between  these  two  sects  at 
one  time  ran  high,  and  in  France,  the  Galenists,  who 
had  antiquity  on  their  side,  obtained  an  edict  from  the 
government  calculated  to  put  down  the  chemists  by 
prohibiting  the  use  of  chemical  remedies.  But  in  this 
instance  it  probably  happened — as  it  often  does  with 
hot  and  zealous  disputants — that  while  they  both 
claimed  the  truth,  the  truth  disclaimed  them  both.  As 
Galen,  like  Hippocrates,  was  ignorant  of  anatomy  and 
physiology,  his  theory,  though  more  elaborate  than  his 
predecessor's,  did  not  add  much  to  the  stock  of  useful 
knowledge  in  a  strict  point  of  view. 

I  have  stated  above  that  it  was  the  doctrine  of  Hip- 
pocrates and  Galen  which  greatly  prevailed  throughout 
Europe  till  the  time  of  Boerhaave,  but  some  time  pre- 


I*J4  Life  and  Letters 


vious  to  that,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  old  Grecian  doctrine  received  a  shock  which,  after 
some  struggling,  entirely  overthrew  it.  This  was  the 
discovery  of  the  true  circulation  of  the  blood  through 
the  animal  body,  which  was  reserved  for  William 
Harvey,  an  English  physician. 

Previous  to  Harvey's  discovery  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  remained  a  perfect  mystery,  and  the  function  of 
the  heart  and  arteries  was  entirely  unknown.  This  dis- 
covery of  Harvey's,  so  all-important  in  the  science  of 
physic  and  surgery, — instead  of  being  hailed  with  joy 
by  the  medical  schools,  as  we  should  have  expected, — 
met  with  decided  opposition  by  the  professors  and 
many  of  the  learned  faculty  of  that  day;  and  when  at 
length  it  began  to  gain  ground  and  to  make  some  noise 
in  the  world,  some  of  the  older  members  of  the  faculty 
were  so  irritated  by  it  that  they  endeavored  to  get  an 
additional  clause  added  to  the  oath  which  physicians 
were  obliged  to  take  when  they  took  their  degree. 

The  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  did  not, 
however,  immediately  produce  that  change  in  the 
theory  and  practice  of  medicine  which  we  should  have 
expected  from  its  very  great  importance,  especially  if 
we  consider  what  a  world  of  darkness  and  mystery  was 
dispelled  by  it.  But  men,  having  been  taught  to  reason 
in  a  certain  way  and  to  view  a  subject  from  a  certain 
point  of  view,  do  not  easily  relinquish  their  opinions. 
It  was  Hippocrates  and  Galen  who  introduced  what  has 
been  called  the  humoral  pathology  or  that  theory  which 
supposes  that  disease  is  introduced  by  some  change  in 
the  fluids  which  render  them  unfit  for  the  due  per- 


of  Nathan  Smith  iy 5 

formance  of  the  functions  of  the  body;  this  change,  they 
supposed,  might  depend  on  the  quantity  or  quality  of 
the  circulating  fluid,  or  from  some  matter  taken  in 
from  without,  which  circulated  in  the  fluids.  After  sup- 
posing this  morbific  matter  to  be  in  the  body,  they 
supposed  that  there  was  a  principle  in  the  animal  system 
which  tended  to  ward  off  evil  and  to  preserve  the  body 
in  health  and  to  restore  it  when  impaired,  and  that  this 
morbific  matter  raised  this  principle  of  defense,  by 
some  called  nature,  the  "vis  medicatrix  natura"  to 
throw  off  the  offending  matter  and  to  relieve  the  system 
from  it.  The  outlets  through  which  this  morbific 
matter  passed  were  all  the  emunctories,  that  is,  it 
passed  by  the  stomach,  by  the  kidneys,  or  by  the  skin ; 
so  that  disease  was  by  them  as  a  conflict  between  two 
forces,  the  one  tending  to  destroy,  and  the  other  to 
preserve,  life; — the  more  visible  symptoms,  such  as 
increased  heat  and  action  in  the  blood,  which  men  sup- 
posed to  be  the  effort  of  nature  struggling  with  disease 
or  offending  matter,  while  the  offending  matter  carried 
on  its  operations  in  a  more  insidious  manner  and  more 
out  of  observation. 

Imperfect  as  these  doctrines  appear  to  us,  they  main- 
tained their  ground  entirely  till  Dr.  Cullen  began  to 
give  lectures  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Cullen 
attacked  the  humoral  pathology,  which  had  been  taught 
from  Hippocrates  down  to  that  time,  and  the  learned 
Boerhaave  had,  not  long  before  and  even  after  the 
discovery  of  the  circulation  by  Harvey,  contributed  to 
establish  it  on  so  respectable  a  foundation  as  seemed  to 
bid  defiance  to  succeeding  generations  to  demolish  it; 


ij6  Life  and  Letters 


Cullen  attempted  to  show  that  this  doctrine — which 
considered  disease  as  arising  from  alteration,  defi- 
ciency, or  superabundance,  of  fluids — did  not  account 
for  all  the  phenomena  of  disease,  and  thought  it  more 
consonant  to  sound  reason  to  suppose  that  many  dis- 
eases originated  from  causes  which  act  exclusively  on 
what  he  calls  the  living  solids. 

But  Cullen,  like  many  other  innovators,  did  not 
carry  his  doctrine  to  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been 
pushed  since.  He  did  not  reject  the  humoral  pathology 
entirely,  but  explained  the  phenomena  of  several  dis- 
eases on  those  principles;  for  instance,  the  smallpox, 
with  other  eruptive  diseases,  on  a  supposition  that,  by 
something  taken  in,  the  fluids  were  changed  and  that  a 
part  of  them  was  converted  to  the  nature  of  the  con- 
tagion which  produced  the  disease,  and  this  was  con- 
veyed off  through  the  skin,  or  other  outlets  of  the  body. 
He  also  gave  full  credit  to  what  he  called  the  vis  medi- 
catrlx  natura. 

The  fate  of  Cullen's  writings  has  been  somewhat 
singular,  for,  although  the  time  since  he  wrote  is  short, 
yet  his  particular  theory  or  explanation  of  disease, 
excepting  so  far  as  it  serves  to  transfer  the  seat  and 
cause  of  diseases  from  the  fluids  to  the  solids,  is  almost 
entirely  obsolete.  Yet  in  this  particular  Cullen  has 
effected  a  greater  change  in  medical  philosophy  than 
any  man  who  has  lived  since  Hippocrates;  for  since 
Cullen's  book  was  published  the  humoral  pathology 
has  gradually  declined  until,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
no  one  speaks  of  disease  as  depending  on  the  fluids. 
After  Dr.  Cullen  published  his  theory  of  disease  and 


of  Nathan  Smith  777 

while  he  was  yet  living,  Dr.  John  Brown,  who  had 
formerly  been  his  pupil,  came  out  with  a  book  which 
he  called  "The  Science  of  Life."  The  book  was 
intended  to  refute  the  theory  of  Cullen  in  part,  but  did 
not  go  to  disprove  his  doctrine  as  to  the  seat  of  disease 
being  in  the  solids;  on  the  contrary,  he  extended  this 
doctrine  further  than  his  master. 

The  peculiar  features  of  Brown's  doctrine  may  be 
explained  in  a  few  words.  He  supposed  that  in  every 
animal  there  was  implanted  a  certain  something  which 
he  called  irritability,  or  a  capacity  to  be  acted  upon  by 
certain  external  agents,  which  he  called  stimuli, — that 
the  effect  of  these  stimuli  was  certain,  and  further  that 
this  excitability  was  exhausted  by  the  use  of  stimuli  and 
that  it  accumulated  or  increased  when  the  stimuli  were 
withheld  or  withdrawn,  and  that  health  consisted  in  a 
due  degree  of  excitement  kept  up  by  stimuli,  and  when 
it  failed  for  want  of  a  due  proportion  of  stimuli,  it  was 
a  state  of  direct  debility, — asthenia;  but  when  the 
stimulus  exceeded,  or  from  the  previous  accumulations 
of  the  excitability,  the  usual  portions  of  stimulus  pro- 
duced actions  beyond  the  healthy  standard,  it  produced 
a  state  of  the  system  which  he  called  sthenic,  which  is 
the  same  that  others  had  called  inflammatory.  Besides 
these  two  opposite  states  of  the  system  he  surmised 
another  which  he  called  indirect  debility,  that  state  of 
debility  which  is  produced  by  an  overdose  of  stimuli, 
and  is  supposed  to  arise  from  exhaustion  of  the 
excitability. 

This  being  the  theory  of  Brown,  the  practice  deduced 
from  it  is  plain  and  simple: — if  the  excitement  be  too 


178  Life  and  Letters 


great,  subtract  stimuli  till  it  is  reduced  to  the  healthy 
standard,  and  if  deficient,  give  stimuli  till  the  actions 
of  the  system  are  brought  up  to  the  healthy  standard; 
in  cases  of  indirect  debility  subtract  the  stimuli  gradu- 
ally and  suffer  the  exhausted  excitability  to  recover. 
Upon  this  plan  he  formed  a  scale  of  disease,  in  which 
he  placed  health  in  the  middle,  the  highest  degree  of 
excitement  at  the  upper  end,  and  death  at  the  lower 
end.  His  Materia  Medica  was  made  to  correspond 
with  his  indications,  of  course;  that  is,  his  remedies 
were  such  as  he  supposed  either  increased  or  diminished 
the  excitement  of  the  system.  Those  which  increased 
the  excitement  he  divided  into  the  permanent  and  dif- 
fusible. Food  was  the  principal  of  the  permanent 
stimuli,  and  opium,  wine  and  alcohol  were  the  chief  of 
the  diffusible.  The  remedies  which  dominate  excite- 
ment, according  to  his  doctrine,  were  evacuation  or  the 
subtraction  of  heat  from  the  body.  He  did  not  con- 
sider remedies  as  having  any  peculiar  or  specific  actions, 
but  ranked  them  according  to  their  supposed  stimulant 
powers. 

The  Brown  theory  was,  in  the  main,  very  defective, 
yet  he  brought  into  view  certain  properties  or  laws  of 
the  animal  economy,  which,  though  not  entirely  over- 
looked by  those  who  went  before  him,  yet  had  not  been 
so  fully  pointed  out,  and  had  received  no  particular 
name.  I  allude  to  his  theory  of  excitability  and  the 
effect  of  stimulants  on  that  principle. 

As  Cullen,  by  transferring  the  cause  of  diseases 
from  the  fluids  to  the  solids,  introduced  a  new  theory  of 


of  Nathan  Smith  17Q 


disease,  so  Brown  introduced  a  set  of  new  words  into 
medical  phraseology  which  still  are  continued. 

Besides  the  authors  which  I  have  mentioned,  there 
have  at  different  times  appeared  a  multitude  of  books 
on  medical  subjects  which  have  exhibited  some  pecu- 
liarities of  doctrine,  but  none  of  them  have  effected  any 
great  or  permanent  change  in  the  theory  or  practice  of 
medicine.  Since  the  time  of  Cullen  and  Brown,  medical 
men  have  assumed  a  much  bolder  and  more  independ- 
ent manner  of  thinking  and  writing,  and  these  two  men 
have  effected  the  change  or  contributed  materially 
towards  it.  They  deserve  much  whether  we  admit 
their  doctrines  as  correct  or  not. 

We  seem  now  to  have  arrived  at  the  proper  point  for 
starting. 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  University  of,  64. 

Allen,  Gen.  Ethan,  119. 

Allen,  Pres.  William,  of  Bowdoin,  99,  109,  110,  111,  112,  148,  149. 

American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  135. 

Atlee,  Dr.  Washington  L.,  130. 

Bell,  Dr.  J.,  122,  124. 

Black,  Prof.  Joseph,  18. 

Boerhaave,  Hermann,  173,  175. 

Bowdoin  College,  87,  109,  110,  111,   112,  114,   120,  128,  147,  148,  149, 

150,  153. 
Boylstone,  Dr.,  45,  46. 
Bradbury,  Hon.  J.  W.,  150. 
Brown,  Dr.  John,  177,  178,  179. 
Brush,  Crean,  119. 
Chase,  Allace,  9. 
Chase,  Allace  (Corbett),  7. 
Chase,  Dudley,  7. 
Chase,  Elizabeth,  11. 
Chase,  Jonathan,  8,  10,  11,  106. 
Chase,  Mary  Dudley,  13. 

Chase,  Philander,  Bishop  of  Ohio  and  Illinois,  7,  99. 
Chase,  Judge  Samuel,  8,  13. 
Chase,  Sarah  (Hall),  11. 
Chase  Smith,  Sarah  Hall.     See  Smith,  11. 
Chase,  Thankful  Sherman,  11. 
Chauncey,  Hon.  Charles,  132. 
Cleaveland,  Dr.  Nehemiah,  112. 
Cleaveland,  Prof.  Parker,  111,  133,  148. 
Cogswell,  Dr.  Mason  Fitch,  84,  85,  86,  88. 
Columbia  College,  15,  120. 
Columbian  University,  161. 
Crenshaw,  Mr.,  136. 
Crosby,  Prof.  A.  B.,  116,  167. 
Crowninshield,  Sec.  of  Navy,  104. 
Cullen,  Dr.  William,  175,  176,  177,  178,  179. 
Darby,  Henry,  49. 


i 82  Index 


Dartmouth  College,  9,  15,  20,  21,  22,  23,  24,  30,  31,  32,  38,  39,  40,  51, 
52,  61,  62,  63,  67,  75,  77,  78,  80,  81,  82,  87,  89,  97,  100,  101,  119, 
120,  128,  140,  143,  149,  150,  152,  153. 

Davidge,  Dr.  John  B.,  135,  158. 

Dexter,  Dr.  Aaron,  10. 

Dudley,  Samuel,  106. 

Dwight,  Pres.  Timothy,  of  Yale,  84,  92,  134. 

Edinburgh,  University  of,  16,  153. 

Edwards,  David  S.,  102. 

Emerson,  Brown,  30. 

Flexner,  Dr.  Abraham,  77. 

Frost,  Dr.  Gilman  D.,  77. 

Galen,  26,  27,  172,  173,  174,  175. 

Gallup,  Dr.,  24. 

Garfield,  Pres.  James  A.,  161. 

Goodhue,  Dr.,  5,  6. 

Gross,  Prof.  Samuel  D.,  130,  152. 

Hall,  Rev.  David,  13. 

Hall,  Elizabeth  Prescott,  13. 

Harvard  College,  10,  15,  40,  53,  64,  82,  120,  153. 

Harvey,  Dr.  William,  174,  175. 

Hillhouse,  James,  92,  96. 

Hills,  Dr.  H.  H.,  150. 

Hippocrates,  26,  27,  93,  169,  170,  171,  172,  173,  174,  175,  176. 

Hitchcock,  Pres.  Edward,  of  Amherst,  104. 

Hoadly,  George,  132,  133,  134. 

Holmes,  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell,  10,  64,  77. 

Hubbard,  Prof.,  99,  100. 

Hubbard,  Dr.  Oliver  P.,  10,  23,  24,  32,  40,  76,  82,  93,  129,  149,  167. 

Hunter,  Dr.  John,  115. 

Ives,  Prof.  Eli,  91,  97,  139. 

Jarvis,  Consul,  67. 

Jefferson  Medical  School,  130,  134,  135,  152,  158. 

Jenner,  Dr.  Edward,  25,  143. 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  163,  164. 

Kimball,  Dr.  Gilman,  114,  115,  168. 

Kingsbury,  Hon.  Sanford,  16. 

Knight,  Prof.  Jonathan,  91,  129,  138,  144,  145,  146. 

Lavoisier,  79. 

Leavenworth,  Dr.  M.  C,  97. 


Index  183 


Lectures  of  Nathan  Smith,  26,  27,  79,  93,  94,  169-179. 

Lettsom,  Dr.,  63,  167. 

Lincoln,  Pres.  Abraham,  161. 

Lincoln,  Gov.  Levi,  54,  56,  66,  70. 

Lincoln,  Rev.  Increase  Sumner,  108,  125,  126,  127,  161. 

Lincoln,  Dr.  Nathan  Smith,  161,  162. 

Louis,  Dr.  Pierre  Charles  Alexandre,  168. 

Lowe,  Dr.  Abraham  T.,  76,  77. 

Maryland,  University  of,  119,  120,  135,  158,  163. 

McClellan,  Dr.  George,  130,  158. 

McDowell,  Dr.  Ephraim,  114,  115,  129,  151. 

Medical  and  Surgical  Memoirs,  83,  146,  168. 

Medical  Review,  135. 

Medical  Society  of  London,  21,  53,  63,  167. 

Medical  and  Chirurgical  Society  of  Maryland,  163. 

Mitchell,  Prof.  Alfred,  150. 

Monro,  Prof.  (Secundus),  18. 

Montesque,  Monte,  119. 

Morse,  Samuel  Finley  Breese,  113. 

Munson,  Prof.  Aeneas,  91. 

Mussey,  Dr.  Reuben  Dimond,  30,  140. 

New  Hampshire  State  Medical  Society,  38,  53,  150,  167. 

Nesmith,  Hon.  George  W.,  93,  94,  95. 

Noyes,  Josiah,  30. 

Olcott,  Mary,  100. 

Olcott,  Mills,  90,  100,  101. 

Osgood,  James,  156. 

Paget,  Sir  James,  159. 

Paine,  Judge,  54. 

Paine,  Miss,  54,  56. 

Paracelsus,  173. 

Parker,  Prof.  Willard,  151. 

Parkman,  Dr.  George,  64. 

Patterson,  Isaac,  33. 

Peck,  Rev.  Robert,  1. 

Penniman,  Dr.  Jabez,  119. 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  15,  35,  120,  134. 

Perkins,  Dr.  Cyrus,  34,  51,  54,  60,  61,  64,  83. 

Phelps,  Daniel,  30. 

Philadelphia  Monthly  Journal  of  Medicine  and  Surgery,  135. 


184  Index 

Philips,  Dr.  A.  P.  Wilson,  167. 

Plato,  26. 

Ramsey,  Dr.  Alexander,  39,  45,  46,  63. 

Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  35,  36,  154. 

Shattuck,  Dr.  George  Cheyne,  30,  31,  34,  35,  38,  40,  41,  42,  43,  45,  46, 
47,  48,  49,  50,  51,  52,  54,  56,  57,  58,  59,  60,  61,  63,  65,  68,  69,  70, 
71,  72,  73,  74,  104,  105,  106,  109,  111,  121,  123,  124,  130,  132,  133, 
136,  137,  140,  156. 

Sheffield,  Hon.  Joseph  Earle,  98. 

Shurtleff,  Prof.  Roswell,  62. 

Silliman,  Prof.  Benjamin,  83,  85,  86,  91,  92,  105,  113,  119,  151. 

Smith,  Dr.  Alan  Penniman,  35,  159,  163,  164. 

Smith,  Catherine  Camilla,  107. 

Smith,  Dr.  David  Paige,  162. 

Smith,  Dr.  David  Solon  Chase  Hall,  13,  17,  18,  19,  21,  61,  62,  89,  96, 
101,  103,  104,  105,  106,  107,  108,  119,  124,  131,  134,  137,  157,  158. 

Smith,  Elizabeth  Ide  Hills,  2. 

Smith,  Gratia  Eliza,  107,  108,  127,  161. 

Smith,  Henry,  2. 

Smith,  Deacon  Henry,  2. 

Smith,  Ensign  Henry,  2. 

Smith,  James  Morven,  107,  119,  137,  156,  160. 

Smith,  John,  2. 

Smith,  John  Derby,  61,  107,  119,  132,  137,  140,  160,  161. 

Smith,  Judith,  2. 

Smith,  Juliette  Octavia    (Penniman),   119. 

Smith,  Laura  Matilda,  107,  137. 

Smith,  Lucy  (Hall),  108. 

Smith,  Mary  Amanda,  107. 

Smith,  Dr.  Nathan,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  9,  10,  11,  12,  13,  15,  16,  17,  18,  19,  20, 
23,  24,  25,  30,  31,  32,  34,  35,  37,  38,  39,  40,  51,  53,  61,  75,  76,  77, 
81,  82,  83,  89,  90,  91,  93,  94,  95,  97,  99,  100,  101,  102,  107,  109, 
112,  113,  114,  115,  116,  120,  121,  125,  126,  127,  128,  129,  130, 
131,  136,  137,  138,  140,  141,  142,  144,  145,  146,  147,  148,  149,  150, 
151,  152,  153,  154,  155,  156,  164,  165. 

Smith,  Dr.  Nathan  Ryno,  21,  61,  62,  89,  96,  101,  103,  107,  118,  119, 
120,  130,  132,  134,  135,  136,  137,  138,  139,  146,  156,  158,  159,  160, 
168. 

Smith,  Rebecca   (Atwood),  2. 

Smith,  Sally  Malvina,  99,  107. 


Index  185 


Smith,  Sarah ,  107,  108,  156. 

Smith,  Sarah  Hall   (Chase),  11,  12,  13,  17,  18,  19,  21,  61,  86,  95,  99, 

107,  156. 
Socrates,  26. 
Spalding,  Dyer,  7. 
Spalding,  Dr.  Jame9  A.,  53. 

Spalding,  Dr.  Lyman,  9,  17,  25,  30,  34,  37,  38,  39,  53,  63. 
Spallanzani,  79. 
Thacher,  Dr.  James,  41. 
Theobald,  Dr.  Samuel,  88. 
Thales,  26. 

Transylvania  School  of  Kentucky,  158. 
Trumbull,  Benjamin,  102. 
Turner,  Thomas,  103. 
Twitchell,  Amos,  30. 
Vauquelin,  79. 

Vermont,  University  of,  87,  120,  122,  124,  128,  158. 
Warren,  Prof.  John,  10,  43. 
Waterhouse,  Dr.  Benjamin,  10,  25,  71. 
Webber,  Prof.  Samuel,  10. 
Webster,  Daniel,  30,  81. 

Welch,  Dr.  William  H.,  30,  87,  97,  98,  129,  152,  153. 
Wells,  Dr.  John  Doane,  105,  111,  122,  123,  124,  131,  138. 
Wells,  Sir  Spencer,  159. 
Wheelock,  Pres.  Eleazar,  of  Dartmouth,  22. 
Wheelock,  Pres.  John,  of  Dartmouth,  15,  32,  81,  89,  112. 
Whiting,  Rev.  Mr.,  5. 
Woolsey,  Elizabeth  (Dwight),  134. 
Woolsey,  Mary  Anne,  134. 

Woolsey,  Pres.  Theodore  Dwight,  of  Yale,  90,  134. 
Woolsey,  W.  W.,  90,  125,  132,  133. 
Writings  of  Nathan  Smith  on  Cancer,  Fevers,  Necrosis,  etc.,  43,  44, 

83,  84,  116,  121,  122,  128,  137,  142,  154,  167. 
Yale  College,  30,  80,  82,  83,  87,  88,  89,  91,  92,  93,  96,  97,  98,  103,  104, 

110,  114,  116,  119,  120,  124,  128,  129,  137,  153,  162,  165. 


R154.Sm62 
Smith 


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Life  and  letters  of  Nathan  Smith 

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